


Beyond the stars

by J_Antebellum



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Aliens, F/F, Girl Penis, alternative universe, professor - student, superhero
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:22:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 39,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28092357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_Antebellum/pseuds/J_Antebellum
Summary: Ashlyn Harris is a university professor who hides a few major secrets and specialises in astronomy and aliens. Ali Krieger is her new student. What could possibly go wrong?
Relationships: Ashlyn Harris/Ali Krieger
Comments: 12
Kudos: 48





	1. Prologue

**Chapter 1: Prologue.**

The sky looked clear today, and the astrophysicist's eyes could easily make out the planets of our solar system through his telescope. And then he saw it. It lasted less than a millisecond, but he was sure he had seen a flying object come into the Earth's orbit.

“Mike!” his wife suddenly interrupted him, storming into the room. “Did you see that? Something collided at the beach.”

“What?”

“An UFO! Hurry up!”

The two scientists barely had time to scoop up their son, two-year-old Christopher, so he wouldn't be alone in the house, before storming out through the back door to the beach that constituted their backyard. They stopped in their tracks as the freezing cold of the October night suddenly collided with their skins, and then saw it. There was a metallic object, of about the same size than a regular package box, sinking in the surface of the dark ocean, calm tonight, and then they could hear the shrieking of a baby.

“Is that...?” Mike wondered, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the beach.

“A baby!” Tammye, his wife, handed him baby Christopher and ran, persuaded by her maternal instinct, towards the sound, illuminating the beach with her lantern, until she distinguished the surface of a creature lying on the sad in the very edge of the shore.

She removed her coat and quickly covered the baby with it as she picked it up, drying it.

“Is it a baby alien?” Mike questioned as he finally reached them.

“I don't know... may just be abandoned,” Tammye held the baby close, trying to be a comforting presence. “Let's go inside, it's freezing!”

“But Tammye, the spaceship it's still in the ocean...”

“Sweetie let it be. Tomorrow you can look for it, tonight, we have no light.”

The family went back inside and there, Tammye ordered her husband to look for Christopher's old newborn clothes while she examined the very small baby, who was still crying. Carefully, she lied her down on their bed, getting blankets, and checked her out. It was a baby girl, and she looked healthy, with a little mane of blonde hair and extraordinarily hazel eyes. If it wasn't for how crystal clear the colour of her eyes was, and the fact that they were wide open and framed by long eyelashes, Tammye would've said she only had hours or a day of age.

“So, is she human?” Mike came inside the room. He had put their son back to sleep, and brought a box of his old newborn clothes. “How old?”

Tammye wasn't stupid and in fact, she was incredibly smart. She was a cosmologist, a scientist like her husband, and her brother was also a scientist, a neurosurgeon in his case, so the entire family was full of great brains. With her brother's medical influence and her own experience as a mother, Tammye could tell the baby girl was perfectly all right.

“We'll leave it to Jimbo to figure more out, but,” Tammye put nappies on the baby, from Christopher's leftovers of when he was little, and dressed her in some shark pyjama soft jumpsuit, before holding her against her chest. “I think she's not older than a couple days, and she looks human to me.”

Mike frowned, sitting on the edge of the bed, his dark eyes staring at the baby. The couple had been studying the space and the sky their entire lives, studying UFOs and alien activity, and so far this was the closest they had gotten to finding an alien. His big hand rubbed the back of the little girl, trying to soothe her, and Tammye kissed the top of her head motherly.

“I'll call 911. Maybe the mother is still out there, somewhere...”

“Don't you think it's odd that we find this baby pretty much in the water, just metres from where we're pretty sure we've just seen a mini spaceship? I think she might've been inside the ship, Mike...”

“But you just said she's human.”

“She looks human,” Tammye stressed her words. “Doesn't mean she is. She has no water in her lungs, she's perfectly healthy... and there's no way someone just left it here. She wasn't there until tonight, and it cannot be a coincidence we found her with the ship.”

“I'll grab my scuba diving equipment and my lantern. I have to find what there is there,” Mike announced, getting up. “You stay with the kids.”

“Please be careful honey.”

“I will,” he kissed her and left the room.

Tammye waited patiently, managing to get the baby to have a baby bottle before putting her to sleep on the armchair in their room, which acted, with some modifications, as an improvised crib, and a couple hours later Mike finally returned, carrying his scuba diving bag, which was waterproof.

“I got something, definitely not from this planet.” He announced before going to get dried and dressed. When he finally returned, they opened the bag upstairs in their room, and were surprised to find what looked like a giant, metallic egg. It was open, and inside it was cushioned, with a soft purple blanket with some odd symbols engraved on it in white, and what seemed like a small tablet. “It looks like a spaceship, right? It has a window, some controls... but it doesn't seem to have a way to be controlled from inside.”

“It was sent out without any intention of returning,” Tammye realized. “And I'm pretty sure the baby was here. This is Atlantean. Ashlyn...” she read on the blanket, and smelled it. “It smells like her. Like baby.”

“They sent a baby alone into space?” Mike frowned, looking back at the baby.

“Yes but... who?”

  
  



	2. Welcome to Orlando Space University

**Chapter 2: Welcome to Orlando Space University.**

Ali Krieger was many things. She was beautiful, young, confident, intelligent and a badass athlete, captain and star of OSC or Orlando Space Comets, the soccer team of her university. And nervous was never supposed to be a word she'd use to define herself but today, it absolutely was.

“Final year sis!” her big brother Kyle grinned at her from the kitchen, filming her with his video camera as she came.

“Oh Kyle put that down...”

“How does it be to finally be a senior, uh?” he interviewed. “Twenty-two, still beautiful, smart as fuck, fit as hell, you could be an astronaut!”

Ali rolled eyes but smiled at her brother's antics. She loved him, deep inside. So she zipped-up her hoodie and accepted her mother's good morning kiss while sitting down at the table.

“It feels great, I'm ready for the big day now can we please...?”

“Fine,” Kyle had studied filmmaking, so the family was generally patient with his filming needs. But today was his sister's big day and he was willing to give in to her wishes. A hairdresser who now and then directed, filmed and produced stuff for his Youtube channel, he didn't even live there anymore, but had come just to see his sister off in her big day. “Now for real, you look tense.”

“It's just...” Ali bit her lip anxiously. “Sydney told me Mr Higgins, my favourite teacher, who taught us astronomy, has retired this summer. We're getting a new teacher this year, and if he sucks, he'll ruin my year.”

“Will you meet him today?” their mother, Debbie, asked sitting with them to eat pancakes. Her short dark brown hair was perfectly tidy for her job as a teacher in a high school nearby.

“Yes, apparently he's my class' tutor. We're 5ºX this year. X. Who the fuck names a class X?”

“How many classes are in your school year this time?” Debbie asked. Usually, students dropped every year, so even though in Ali's first year there had been five classes, it had dropped to four in the second year, two in the third and four, and now we'd see.

“One, just us. Forty students, that's all that's left.”

Kyle cheered.

“Survivors, bitch! Hurry up, I'll drive you to class for the good old days!”

Ali encountered her best friends at the University entry hall. She lived with her mother most of the time but during the year and for the past three years, she had been living in the University students' residences, so she could focus more on her studies, even though her mother only lived an hour from the University, by car. The residence was only fifteen minutes from the University's main building in a calm stroll, so it was more comfortable for Ali. However, Ali always returned to the residences the second day of classes, so she could have her first morning with her family.

All her besties remained with her, even though they didn't study the same things. Sydney Leroux, her bestest friend, was also a classmate, while the others were all in different degrees, but all were teammates. Christen Press, Alex Morgan, Crystal Dunn or Becky Sauerbrunn were some of her closest friends, and they all grinned as she appeared.

“Hi there! Do we know who's the new teacher there?”

“Rumour has it you guys got the sexiest butch alive,” Christen told Sydney and Ali as they walked together into the entry hall.

“What?” Sydney looked confused.

“Over there!” Crystal pointed over to the inside patio. “The woman chatting with Coach Rapinoe, the one with the tie.”

Ali looked over and her breath caught in her throat. Next to their soccer coach, Megan Rapinoe, was another tall, fit woman, with short but abundant wavy hair, dyed blonde, judging by the dark roots. She had enough of it to brush it backwards elegantly and have the tips almost reach the root of her neck in the back, and was laughing with a beautiful face with marked cheek bones. And then she was tall and just beautiful.

“Ali, come back to Earth,” Sydney elbowed her playfully.

“Someone's drooling after the teacher...” Alex teased.

“I'm not!” Ali hissed.

“Oh, they're looking at us,” Sydney bowed her head. “Go, go!”

The group spread to their different classes, and hours later, Ali and Sydney entered their astronomy class on what was presentation day.

The astronomy classroom was the most stunning of them all. Located at the top of the University tower, it was round, huge, and had big windows. The part of it that wasn't full of desks and seats had larger tables full of astronomy instruments, star maps on the walls, and big telescope by a window.

“Welcome to your final year of astronomy,” the teacher's voice echoed, shutting them all up as she walked into the classroom and the students stopped murmuring. The new teacher had hazel eyes, soft make-up, suit black trousers that marked her fine ass, shiny new shoes, a white shirt, a black tie, and a grey cardigan. The sleeves were rolled to her elbows and exposed an arm sleeve of tattoos and a Tag Heuer watch, along with bracelets of beads. “I am Ms Ashlyn Harris, and I will be your teacher this year, after Mr Higgins' retirement,” she added, walking to the front of the classroom and leaving her briefcase on her desk before writing her name with a pen on the white board, in capital letters. Ali hurriedly noted it on her notebook.

“Her cheekbones are a brick wall, don't you think?” Sydney murmured to Ali's ear.

“What about how young she is? She can't be much older than us...”

“Excuse me,” Ms Harris interrupted Ali, looking serious at her. “I'm talking.”

“I'm sorry, Ms Harris. Won't happen again.”

“Can we all know what was so important to interrupt me?”

Ali gulped, but nodded.

“I was just wondering, Professor, with all due respect...” said Ali nervously. “Aren't you quite young to be teaching here? I mean... I don't want to be offensive, but Mr Higgins was quite old, hence his retirement.”

There was a murmur in the class as everybody found her quite daring, and Ali thought Ashlyn smirked, but the teacher dissimulated quickly.

“Silence!” Ashlyn's voice echoed again. “I appreciate your honesty Ms...”

“Krieger. Ali Krieger, ma'am.”

“Krieger,” Ashlyn nodded. “Thank you. And that's a good question, let's see if your classmates learn something today. We are scientists, all of us, you may be in the process, but if you're still here it means you still want to know more. You make questions and seek answers because that's what scientists do. To be an astronomer, you need to be intrigued. What Ms Krieger here is showing is just how much she was meant to be here with us today,” the teacher proceeded, making her blush. “She wouldn't be a true astronomer if she didn't make questions about a new teacher, and she wouldn't be a good astronomer if she didn't enquiry on whether I am good enough or not for you guys. So let me tell you about me, then.”

“Good job,” Sydney whispered to Ali.

“I am, indeed, not much older than you, four years to be precise,” continued the professor. “I finished elementary school two years early, went to University at age fifteen and, not to be pedant, but I had completed my studies in astronomy, astrophysics and biology by the age of twenty.”

“Three degrees? You're joking,” someone muttered behind Ali.

“My entire curriculum is available in the university website, for those who are extra curious, but in short, I then enlisted in the US Marines for two years, where I met again with your Coach Megan Rapinoe, with whom as a random fact, I used to play soccer in school, goalkeeper,” there was a murmur of approval, and Ali side smiled. “Then the NASA called me to work for them for the following three years, and then I quit so I could focus on my own research, which brought me to becoming a teacher here. I've got thirty-three articles in the top astronomy magazines in the country, I've written two books and I've got an IQ score of 205. I also hate bragging so can we go back to comets and asteroids or anybody has more questions? Yes Ms Krieger?”

“Are you A. M. Harris? Author of 'Over the moon'? Your theories about intelligent life outside our planet were a revelation, didn't you win the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal?”

“Indeed,” the class murmured again, this time of amazement. “Can I ask you something, Ms Krieger?”

“Of course,” Ali was so impressed she'd answer to anything.

“I read the paper you wrote last year for Mr Higgins, 'Life beyond the stars'. He thought it was the most brilliant paper any student had delivered for him and insisted I read it. I was fascinated,” Ashlyn admitted, making her blush harder. “Where did you get the ideas for it?”

“Oh,” Ali gulped shyly. “I was thinking of the Egyptians' concept of God, Professor. Figured it fit with alien life.”

Ashlyn nodded, smiling small.

“I hope we can talk further after class then. Now, everyone, let me take you into the fascinating world of the universe, and tell you what we'll study this year...”

  
  



	3. Professor Harris, Ph.D.

**Chapter 3: Professor Harris, Ph.D.**

Nervously, Ali approached her professor's office. It was the last day of school before the Christmas holidays now, and Ali had been called to the office that day, for reasons unknown, which only made her extra nervous. But as much as she thought about it, Ali couldn't come up with a reason to explain being called to the office. As far as she was concerned, she had done nothing wrong, and she thought she did pretty well in her exams.

“Come in,” Professor Harris' voice came from the other side of the thick wooden door. Ali opened and found Ashlyn sitting at her desk, behind a mountain of papers. She had never visited the room before. There were nice windows, and on one of them, directly behind the professor, was a window shelf with two framed pictures. One showed a planet Ali didn't recognize, and the other showed a family, with a little girl and a slightly bigger boy, smiling in front of a telescope. The same telescope, Ali recognized next to the other window. The walls were covered in sky maps and photographs of the universe. There was a closet as well, but most of the room was occupied by a large bookshelf. “Oh, hello Ms Krieger,” she smiled at the student, “sorry to entertain you, you're probably dying to return home for the holidays.”

“It's okay, my family lives nearby so I see them weekly,” Ali shrugged with a small smile. “Why did you call me, Professor?”

“Please sit down. Can I offer you anything to drink? Coffee, perhaps?”

“Water is fine.”

Ashlyn nodded and got up while Ali sat at her desk. The older woman walked to a closet and Ali saw her open a mini fridge where she had a water container tap, with which she filled a glass from a side shelf, and then returned, giving it to Ali.

“Thanks.”

“So,” Ashlyn sat on her chair, turning her computer off, and smiled at the student, grabbing a stack of papers from her desk, “these are your class' end of term exams. I finished the term's evaluations yesterday, for your entire class.”

“And everything okay?” had she failed? Was that possible?

“Yes. I must say, however, that I found your exams' answers and your projects very interesting. You've worked tremendously hard these three months, I can tell.”

Ali was surprised. She wasn't expecting being called in for compliments.

“Thanks, I tried,” she took a sip of water, more relaxed now.

“I have to be honest with you, Ms Krieger. In the beginning, when Mr Higgins' asked me to substitute him, I was going to say no. I found teaching a waste of energy,” Ali snorted a laugh.

“I can understand that. Are you and Mr Higgins close?”

“He was my teacher when I studied here, and my mentor. So I hundred percent trust his judgement and so when he told me about you, calling you the most brilliant student he had ever had after me, I knew I had to meet you, so I came here.”

“He said that? And you accepted the job just to teach... me?”

“Correct,” Ashlyn nodded. “I've been immersed on a study on alien life for a long time, Ms Krieger, and truth is I need new blood in it, you know, to get different points of view, enrich my study, get other opinions and thoughts and ideas. That said, it's a personal study. It's not to be published, or made public. It's to be a secret.”

“Then, shouldn't you have not told me?”

“Well said,” the professor smirked at her wit. “I'm only telling you because I want you to work in it with me. Here, after class, in the weekends... I'm not going to expect you to invest as much of your time and energy as I am, but it'd be nice if you could squeeze in fifteen hours a week, that's all I ask. And in exchange, I can guarantee you will obtain excellent achievements in my course, top marks, and my personal recommendation for any job you aspire to get after university, no more homework from me for the rest of the year, and your name will be written on the study, in case anybody ever finds it in a hundred years. Also, I'm offering you the chance to work along with one of the top astronomers in the world.”

Ali looked at her in disbelief.

“That's very generous, ma'am but... why me?”

“Like I said, you're brilliant. I need someone brilliant. Someone loyal, someone who can keep a secret because Ali, if I find out you discussed with anyone, even with your parents, anything of what we talk about here, I will ruin your career,” Ashlyn added more seriously, scaring her for a moment. “My study is top secret. Not one soul aside from you and I can know. So if you think you're not the right person for the job, I'll trust you'll let me know.”

The student gulped nervously, biting her lip in thought, before nodding.

“I'm your person. What's our study about then?”

Ashlyn grinned and took the planet picture she had framed, putting it on her desk in front of Ali.

“Proxima Centauri b. What do you know?”

“It's an exoplanet from the Proxima Centauri solar system. It is believed to be habitable, but it was just discovered four months ago so not much is known about it yet. It's uh... the closest known exoplanet to the Earth?”

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

Ali smirked at her challenging hazel eyes.

“Telling you.” Ashlyn side smiled, nodding proudly.

“Well done. This is what I want, Ali. I want to know everything there is to know about it. Everything.”

“But no one's stepped on it yet. There aren't even pictures that,” Ali pointed to the framed picture, “is just an artist's conception. And we aren't astronauts, how are we supposed to... get information?”

Ashlyn nodded in deep thought, looking through the window at the stars already there.

“Ali, do you believe in aliens?”

“Of course. There's no way we're alone here.”

“Have you ever seen one? Or an UFO maybe?”

“Not that I know of.”

The professor looked satisfied at her.

“Can we meet tomorrow? It's late today.”

“Sure,” Ali was left with unanswered questions, but decided not to push it. “Goodnight Professor.”

“Goodnight. Get home safe, uh?”

“Will do.”

Ali left the office and went to her residence, getting her suitcase before walking back outside in the night. She was just crossing the street to the bus station to go home when she heard the horn of a car and turned, seeing a truck about to run her over. She paralysed, in fear. She couldn't move.

  
  



	4. Child of the stars

**Chapter 4: Child of the stars.**

Ali had crossed her eyes and put her arms over her body bracing for impact, but it didn't come. Instead, she heard a collision, and when she turned around, she saw no other but Professor Harris between her and the truck, lying on the floor and already sitting up. The front of the truck was completely dented, as if it had crashed with a building, and the truck had stopped moving.

“Professor Harris! Are you okay?” Ali ran to her, helping her to her feet.

“Yes, I'm completely fine, thank you. You all right? I thought he'd run you over.”

“I was so stupid, I paralysed...”

“It's all right, it happens,” Ashlyn smiled at her, making Ali forget her train of thought for one moment. And then, the truck driver came over, freaking out.

“Jesus Christ are you okay? I'll call an ambulance, I'm so sorry...”

“I'm fine, no worries. You'll have to start driving safely, dude. Let's go,” Ashlyn wrapped an arm around Ali and guided her out of there, the student dragging her suitcase.

“Where are we going?”

“To my car. I'll drive you home, I don't feel at ease knowing you're going on public transport alone this late, and it's my fault you're late. Call your parents, tell them you'll be there in no time.”

“But Professor— your hand!” Ali just noticed the professor's left palm had a cut from pressing against the front of the car. “You're bleeding!”

“Don't worry, is not a big deal—,”

“Let me see,” Ali grabbed her hand, stopping. “This is going to need stitches, we should go to the hospital...”

“Trust me Ms Krieger, I'll be fine.”

“Let me at least...” Ali took off her scarf and tied it around her hand. “There... but I really think—,”

“Ali,” Ashlyn used her name and got her attention, smiling warmly. “Please don't worry. Let's go.”

They got into the car and Ali was surprised her professor didn't seem to be in pain, and her hand had stopped bleeding. Just then she thought about what the teacher had been doing.

“Professor, did you want something? Why were you there?”

“Oh,” Ashlyn nodded. “Yes, I realized we didn't exchange numbers. I was thinking we should, so you can call me if you can't come one day or if you arrive and don't find me there.”

“Ah, yeah. I'll email you my number.”

“Thanks.”

“Professor...” Ali frowned. “The truck was going really fast. How did you stop it? You... the truck looked worse than you did.”

Ashlyn smiled small, eyes glued to the road.

“I'm an athlete, I'm really fit. I saw it was going to run you over, and I stopped it.”

“And I'm very grateful but... I don't think any human could do that...”

The professor sniggered.

“Oh, there's nothing human in me, so don't worry.”

Ali looked surprised, but then figured her teacher was only joking, and giggled, nodding. She had a really weird teacher.

Meanwhile, Ashlyn was panicking inside. She knew her hand's wound had closed already, and that the scarf wrapped around it didn't have a single blood stain, and she was trying to come up with a great explanation for it, but couldn't find anything good enough for someone as smart as Ali to believe.

So when she finally dropped her off at home, Ashlyn retired the scarf nervously and handed it to Ali, who immediately was stunned.

“Wait, what?” Ali stretched her scarf, analysing it, and then pulled Ashlyn's hand, seeing there was only a line of scab. “How the hell did you do that?”

“Yeah uh... my body heals really, really fast, the wound must've reabsorbed the blood from the scarf and... dada! It always happens.”

“What?” Ali frowned.

“Anyway, it's really late, your parents must be worried. I'll see you tomorrow at three, all right?”

Ali nodded slowly, her eyes fixed on her full of suspicion.

“Right. Goodnight.”

As Ashlyn drove away once Ali had all her things and was inside her house, her friend Megan was immediately calling her to the hands-free car phone.

“Is Ali still here?”

“No.”

“Woah mate,” Megan laughed. “I saw through my window. The moment when you threw yourself to the ground was particularly funny.”

“I had to do something, so she'd believe the hit had affected me some. But I cut my hand and now she's seen how fast I heal.”

“Well Ash, someday she had to know. After all, you're going to work together.”

“Yeah...” Ashlyn sighed. “Yeah, I guess so. By the way I took your car. I had to dissimulate.”

“Yeah, I know. Well done Harris.”

Ashlyn returned to the University and climbed the spiral staircase that connected her office with her bedroom. She opened her safebox and pulled out the old little tablet. She pushed the one button in it as she flopped on her bed, and the hologram of two faces, a man and a woman appeared, smiling at her.

“Ashlyn, my love, we're sorry we're not with you.” The woman began.

“We only had the capacity to send you away,” the man added, as behind him, sounds of chaos could be heard. “We don't have much time. We just want you to know that we are your parents, we love you, and that we sent you away to keep you safe. You are the only hope for our kind, my love.”

“Sweetheart, you are the last Atlantean alive. By the time you see this we'll be long gone... and so will our planet, Atlantis, or as you will know it in planet Earth, Proxima Centauri b. You are our only hope left.”

  
  



	5. Bonding

**Chapter 5: Bonding.**

Ali and Ashlyn started to work together, mostly in the library of the university, although every now and then they'd return to the classroom or the professor's office to be more comfortable. And slowly, they began to bond. Ashlyn found out Ali was the youngest of two siblings, and that her big brother, Kyle, worked in Los Angeles as a hairdresser, although he visited the city often. Her parents were divorced and both were gym teachers in high school, plus her father was a youth soccer coach and had coached her when she was younger, but now lived with his new wife in the Kriegers' hometown of Dumfries, Virginia.

“What about you?” asked Ali as they worked on building a telescope they were designing as they went to look just at Proxima Centauri b.

“Oh,” Ashlyn thought about the question for a moment before answering. “I'm adopted. All I know is my adoptive family, of scientists by the way, found me in Cocoa Beach, and I've been with them since. Pretty great people, truth be told.”

“Found you?” Ali frowned, hating to think about her professor having been abandoned as a baby.

“Yeah,” Ashlyn shrugged. “In the beach, when I was a newborn. Nobody ever found out how I ended up there.”

“Shit... sorry, people shouldn't go around abandoning babies like that. If you hadn't been found...”

“I'd be dead, yes,” Ashlyn half smiled. “I also had a big brother, like you, but he died. Christopher,” she nodded, “he was an astronaut. Three years ago a mission went wrong and... his spaceship exploded in the air. We never got anything to bury.”

“I'm so sorry,” Ali was truly saddened by that. “Must've been horrible.”

“Yeah,” Ashlyn sighed.

“That's when you left the Marines? For the NASA?”

“Yes, I figured I'd find out what went wrong, why he died. But I never did. Things there are top secret Ali, they're completely controlled by the government, so eventually I got sick of it. Quit last summer after being in the team that discovered Proxima Centauri b, came here. How did you decide to study this, what do you want to be?”

“Uhm...” Ali thought about it, passing her a screwdriver. The telescope was going to be pretty big, but the professor seemed to have plenty of knowledge to build it. “I'm not sure yet. I was always fascinated with the space, with aliens more specifically. Wanted to know everything about what's out there... but I don't know, maybe I'll be a teacher like my parents. Do you like teaching?”

“I like teaching you,” Ashlyn winked, making her blush. “Honestly, I just like teaching bright people, people who reassure me I'm not losing my time. Correcting exams, evaluating students, preparing classes... not my favourite tasks. But it pays well here, at least. Won't continue after this year though.”

“Why?”

“Well you'll graduate. I only came here to ensure no teacher came and screwed up such a bright mind, as a favour to Mr Higgins' and the universe.”

“Seriously? You won't stay after I'm gone? What about all the other bright minds here who need proper guidance?”

Ashlyn looked at her, confused.

“Which ones?”

Ali didn't know if she was being serious, but she laughed regardless, and Ashlyn smiled warmly at her, showing off a cute dimple.

“What will you do then? More research?”

“Well uh, I've got an old friend who's dropped the NASA as well, Abby Wambach—,”

“From Wambach Space Corp.?”

“Exactly. She wants it to be Wambach & Harris Space Corp. We'd be doing research, creating last model telescopes, investigating UFO and alien activity... they make money through selling selected information to governments, selling equipment, selling space photographs in the highest quality, selling their science magazine 'Behind the stars', advising and aiding astronomers and other related professionals across the globe, giving conferences, etc. She's taken over the company after her mother's retirement, and she wants me to join so I think I will. And you know... they have incredible scholarships and apprenticeship programmes, in case you're interested. I think it'd be better for you than this teaching thing.”

“So she's basically recommending you for the top American company of space research and investigations?” Sydney's eyes were out of its sockets in amazement as Ali told her the news the next day while they sat by their favourite lake to have some ice-cream.

“Indeed.”

“That woman has the hots for you Kriegs.”

“What?” Ali's ears blushed. “I don't know what you're talking about. Our relationship is purely professional.”

“She's telling you about her family, she's telling you about her future projects and asking you to join, and you blush every single time you talk about her... besides, she basically told you she has no business in the university without you! And have you seen the way she looks at you?”

“You're delusional, Syd. She's four years older, I bet she has a husband or children...”

“A husband? Seriously? Where's your damn gay radar?”

“I'm not even gay!”

Sydney shook her head, smiling small, and patted her thigh.

“You and Brandon broke up over a month ago. It's time you try new horizons.”

Ali couldn't get her friends' words out of her head for days. Christmas came and went and she started looking at the women's posters in her room with new eyes. She had always thought of them as empowering ladies that inspired her, but when she sat to really think about it, she also found those women quite sexy. But she had eyes in the face! Of course she recognized beauty when she saw it. And even she had to admit... every time those hazel eyes locked with hers, or the professor praised her knowledge, she felt hot everywhere.

“Professor Harris,” said Ali, mustering up her courage, one afternoon as the two studied a sky map, trying to determine whether a dark hole could be used as a way to get to Proxima Centauri b faster. The professor had a strong theory that that planet already had life that had already visited the Earth, and they needed to prove an easy way to do so.

“Hmm?” Ashlyn asked with her eyes on the telescope.

“I've got a game here, when we return from the holidays. Would you want to come? You know, since you like soccer and... to get some actual sunlight maybe.” She teased with a half smile. She wanted to show her teacher she was way more than a very smart person.

Ashlyn's attention immediately drifted to her and she turned to look at her student.

“Would you like me to come?”

Ali blushed, but nodded.

“Yes.”

Ashlyn chuckled, nodding.

“Then I must.”

The game was right after the holidays, on a cloudy and windy afternoon after classes. Ashlyn had a cap from the team and excitedly sat in the stands, amongst the thousands of fans cheering for their team, plus the families. As she sat there, observing Ali doing warm-ups in a uniform that really hugged her ass in ways Ashlyn felt she certainly shouldn't be observing, she noticed a woman sitting lower in the stands, nearer to the pitch, who had Ali's big smile and a t-shirt with Ali's number, 11, on the back, plus the surname. Next to her, a brunette bearded man who looked like Ali's male twin sat with an identical jersey, but the newer version, and Ashlyn knew exactly who they were.

“Excuse me,” Ashlyn walked over to them, following a hunch, and lifted her sunglasses so they could see eye to eye, smiling politely. “Are you Ali Krieger's family?”

“And you must be Ms Hot,” Kyle blurted out, having heard far too much about her from his little sister to believe any word Ali said to defend her supposed 'straight' sexuality.

“Kyle!” Debbie elbowed him, while Ashlyn sniggered. “Excuse him, he refuses to behave like he's twenty-five sometimes. I'm Ali's Mum, Debbie.”

“Nice to meet you, I'm Professor Ashlyn Harris, I teach astronomy and cosmology to your daughter. Brightest student I have,” Ashlyn said, shaking their hands.

“She's the best at everything,” Kyle joked with a chuckle.

“Please, why don't you sit with us? Ali talks non-stop about you. Of course she said what you guys do is top secret and she cannot reveal a thing,” Debbie explained as Ashlyn sat on the offered seat next to her, putting her sunglasses back on, “but she did say she loves working with you, that you're super intelligent and inspiring, and that you guys are doing incredible advances in your field.”

“I hope we are,” Ashlyn nodded, flattered, trying not to blush. “I have to say I'm not that good. Your daughter's contribution has been totally unique, fundamental I'd say. My studies would've sunk otherwise. You should be proud Debbie, you have a daughter who's absolute brains and,” she pointed to the field just as Ali scored a goal during the first minute of play, “clearly an incredible athlete.”

Debbie blushed hard, and slapped her thigh shyly.

“Aw, you're just so appreciative of her. Wish every one of her teachers were.”

“She's just trying hard not to admit Ali's the best thing she ever did. Don't worry Mum, I think so too,” Kyle laughed hard.

“Hey, don't sell yourself short,” Ashlyn chuckled at him. “Ali talks wonders about you too. She says you're her best friend and the bravest man she's ever known.”

“Aw, does she?” Kyle grinned excitedly. “COME ON SIS, SCORE 'HEM ANOTHER ONE!”

In the end, Ali's team won three vs one, and Ali scored one of the goals, which was amazing for a right back defender. Ashlyn recognized other students of her and cheered for them too, but mostly enjoyed watching Ali slay and kick some ass, and chatting with her funny, kind and charismatic family. Ali resembled them so much she felt entirely comfortable, as if she was chatting with her.

“I take my hat off to you,” Ashlyn joked removing her cap and bowing to Ali as they met her after the game and Ali finished hugging her family, laughing at her teacher.

“So? Worth getting out of the office for a couple hours?” Ali teased her.

“Totally worth it.”

“What a bummer, usually Mum and I would take Ali for a celebratory smoothie,” Kyle commented, “but today we're both quite busy...”

“Kyle's going to help me get in better shape,” Debbie rescued the rest of the sentence, and Ali looked surprised.

“So Ashlyn, why don't you take our girl for us, uh? That way we wouldn't feel too bad.”

“Nonsense, it's fine, I have a ton of homework anyway—,”

“Wasn't it you who said something about it being good to be out of the office or classroom and get some sun now and then?” said Ashlyn, surprising Ali. “Let me take you for a smoothie, come on. You scored, you deserve a reward, not some bunch of homework. Homework is for people to learn what otherwise their brains can't process, you don't need it.”

“Amen, see you later sis, love you,” Kyle kissed her cheek. “Let's go Mum!”

“Right, bye sweetheart, have fun! Thanks Ashlyn,” Debbie hugged her daughter one last time and squeezed Ashlyn's shoulder affectionately before following her son away. Ali stood there, with her gym bag hanging from a shoulder and a shocked expression.

“The hell was that?”

Ashlyn laughed.

“Less making questions and more walking miss, we're not in the classroom now! May I take your bag?”

“No, thank you,” Ali smiled warmly, walking along with her. “Where are you taking me then?”

“Uhm...” Ashlyn looked at the clouds in the sky, threatening to cover the little sun they had. “What do you think about the best pancakes in the city plus a top class chocolate milkshake?”

“Sounds absolutely against my diet, I dig it!”

Ashlyn laughed.

“Then let's go!”

  
  



	6. Atlantis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgive I reuse the name Atlantis and the adjacent university. A part of me thought it was amusing to mix two entirely different universes of stories I've written LOL.

**Chapter 6: Atlantis.**

“Mmm,” Ali's sounds were almost orgasmic, making Ashlyn blush just from hearing her, as they devoured their pancakes. “You weren't kidding, this is amazing!”

“Space coast kids came to Orlando in our teens, so I've known this place forever. It's legendary,” Ashlyn smiled. “Glad you like it.”

They were sitting in a corner booth on dark blue sofa seats across each other, with their plates on the table and two large glasses of chocolate milkshake.

“So,” Ali sipped from her milkshake and put it back down on the table, “what did you think of my family?”

“They're wonderful. I actually felt like I was hanging with two versions of you, to be honest, they're really nice and they adore you. You're a lucky girl.”

“That my biggest groupies are my relatives instead of someone hot and available? Sure,” Ali joked, making them both laugh. Ashlyn wasn't expecting it and she laughed just as she was drinking, which made some smoothie come out of her nose and Ali laugh harder.

“I can be your new groupie if you want,” Ashlyn said flirty, making Ali's eyes widen in shock. “What, am I not hot enough?”

“No, I mean, it's just, you know—,”

“Relax, Kriegs,” Ashlyn chuckled as Ali got red as ketchup in embarrassment. “I've always been such a flirt I forget to change the chip sometimes, I do apologize.”

“It's okay,” Ali smiled. “So I'm not Ms Krieger anymore?”

“I think we should leave formalisms for the classroom now that I've heard enough sexual jokes from your brother to consider him almost family,” Ashlyn joked, making them snigger. “I'm Ashlyn.”

“I'm Ali,” Ali shook her hand over the table. “So, what are those tattoos for? They're really cool and original.”

Ashlyn looked at her left arm. Now she was wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt and it showed off her muscled arm covered in complex black and white tattoos up to her wrist.

“These? Designed them myself, a friend in Cocoa Beach made them. They tell my life story, these are for my parents... I've got one for my brother right here, wouldn't be appropriate to show,” she pointed below her left breast and winked at Ali, who blushed harder.

“They're really cool,” Ali was starting to feel fiery. Her teacher was flirting with her, that much was obvious now, and she was feeling like hitting back... or like Kyle and Sydney would say, 'test the waters'. “So how's that not appropriate? I'm an adult, twenty-two in six months.”

Ashlyn wasn't expecting that, and she raised her eyebrows, but then smirked, finding her flirtatiousness attractive.

“I'm your teacher.”

“And? My grades protect you from admitting the fact that I'm only your favourite because I'm really attractive. I caught you looking at my ass more than once on that field... _Professor_.” Her foot gently rubbed Ashlyn's lower leg, and Ali felt her cheeks burn. She wasn't used to this. She couldn't do this. How would she ever look at Ashlyn's eyes again without blushing in embarrassment?

“Is that what you think?” Ashlyn inquired, leaning forward, her eyes fixed intently on hers.

“Isn't that the truth?”

Ashlyn played with the straw between her lips, making Ali's eyes unconsciously move to her lips, and then smirked, showing off her dimple and Ali was sure the professor knew the power of attraction that one dimple alone had. In truth, Ashlyn was sweating cold. She had no idea what she was doing, but she hid behind her confident appearance, and let the eight months of sexual abstinence guide her actions and think for her.

“You're my favourite because of your fantastic ass _and_ your wonderful grades. You're the only pupil that doesn't make me waste hours of my life to correct her exams. Are we going to talk about the way you eat me with your eyes in class too, or...?”

“Maybe we should...” Ali gulped. “Continue this discussion in your office.”

“Maybe we should,” Ashlyn nodded. “Lily!” she got the waitress' attention and lifted fifty dollars in the air. “I'm leaving fifty, keep the change!” Lily smiled and nodded, mouthing a thank you as she attended another table. “Let's go miss.”

Ali barely had time to finish her pancake before she was hurrying out of the door, making sure to sway her ass in front of Ashlyn just as they turned the corner back to the university building. Ashlyn saw that and growled low, making her blush.

“See anything you like, Professor?” Ali asked innocently.

“Keep that up and I won't care if I get kicked out of university for fucking a student in an alley,” Ashlyn said sincerely in a low whisper as they walked quickly towards the University. Ali smirked and winked at her, and Ashlyn felt a rush of blood to her groin. God, what was this kid doing to her?

Ashlyn grabbed a hold of her hand as soon as they were out of public view and took her down an alley to get faster to the university through the teachers' parking lot entrance, which was nearby. Ali was marvelled by how small her hand looked in Ashlyn's big and strong goalkeeper one, but as they walked past a truck, those thoughts left her mind. Suddenly, someone grabbed her from the arm from behind, and she yelped, turning around as a big guy with the worst breath pulled her tight against her chest, letting him feel how hard he was beneath his trousers.

“Hello gorgeous...” he said smiling with a golden tooth.

“Hello!” Ali replied angrily, stressing her word with a knee to his groin. As he bent down with a groan, she elbowed him on the back of his neck, hard, making him drop down, and then she ran. “Let's go Ashlyn!”

Ashlyn had turned with a fist up and ready, but had stopped seeing she had control of the situation. However as Ali took her hand to pull her forward and go, she saw the hazel eyes were angrily fixed behind her. But before she could do anything, Ashlyn unexpectedly jumped, flipping in the air over Ali, and as the brunette turned around in awe, the professor had landed on her feet and was confronting the attacker, who had gotten back up and was pointing at where Ali's back had been with a gun.

Wordlessly, Ashlyn grabbed his wrist, which held the gun, as he shot, the bullet landing on a car, and squeezed hard, making him scream in agony. Ali knew without being a doctor that Ashlyn had somehow made purée with his wrist bones, because he was too much in pain to hit her back. As he dropped to the ground, groaning and sobbing, Ashlyn grabbed his neck.

“This is the last time you assault anyone, understood?” and with that said she punched him so hard he dropped unconscious, and then ran to Ali. “Now we have to go before police comes asking questions.”

“Wait, how did you...?”

“Later, Ali.”

Ashlyn took her hand and guided her away, and soon, they arrived to her classroom, still out of breath. Ali was struggling to keep up with Ashlyn's pace, rushing behind her full of adrenaline as they walked through the classroom to the door behind the teacher's desk that guided them to a spiral stairwell and to Ashlyn's office. Suddenly, as if her body was just acknowledging it, Ali felt a sharp pain in her abdomen and pressed her hand there.

“Ouch!” she said, keeping a hand on her side. She looked down and frowned, seeing her grey hoodie was red stained. As she removed her hand, she saw her side, where the ribs ended, was covered in dark blood. “Oh shit...”

Ashlyn had turned around in time to see her, and her eyes widened in panic, quickly rushing to her.

“It's okay, I've got you. The bullet must have grazed you, I'm so sorry...” Ashlyn wrapped an arm around her. “Are you feeling faint? You've lost quite the amount of blood, I should've noticed...”

“I'm fine,” although now that her body was finally relaxing enough to acknowledge the wound, Ali was actually feeling faint. “I'm...” she stumbled and Ashlyn caught her.

“I've got you, you will be all right.”

To Ali's surprise, Ashlyn effortlessly took her up in her arms bride style and rushed up the stairs, past the office to a room Ali had never seen before, a spacious round bedroom with a large bed, where Ashlyn tenderly lied there.

“Maybe I should go to the hospital this time...” Ali whispered weakly, and Ashlyn side smiled.

“I kinda hate hospitals. May I take off your hoodie?” Ali nodded and let Ashlyn take off her hoddie, nodding again when Ashlyn gave her an inquisitive look, lifting the hem of her t-shirt. “This is going to hurt some, but I promise it'll be just a moment.” Ashlyn put a hand over the bleeding wound and Ali started to feel warmth there. Suddenly the pain became so unbearable she gasped and squeezed Ashlyn's forearm, but just as it came, it was over. “There... I'm sorry, but you're okay now, for real.”

Ali looked down at to her amazement, there was no wound. The blood that had covered her abs and clothes was gone, the stains she had sure to have left on Ashlyn's t-shirt gone as well, and she stared at Ashlyn with wide eyes.

“How the heck...?” Ali blinked in disbelief, touching her skin. Nothing. No wound, no pain. “You healed yourself in a matter of hours. You've just made disappear what I'm sure would've otherwise required five stitches and several days to heal. You effortlessly made an air flip over my head and grounded that guy's wrist... you better explain yourself now because I'm about to freak out.”

Ashlyn got serious and nodded.

“I will tell you everything. But first, you need to lie down and get your strength back. I'll give you some water,” Ashlyn went down the stairs and a moment later came back with a tray with glasses and a bottle of whiskey. She put it on her bedside table and grabbed one glass but this time instead of using a bottle to fill it, she looked at Ali and put a hand over the top of it. Instantly, the glass filled with clear water, and Ali sat up in shock, her jaw dropped. “You're a very smart person, Ali. Don't you know?” she asked, passing her the glass.

And suddenly it clicked.

“You said there was nothing human in you...” Ali took her glass and drank it, almost moaning at how nice this water tasted, how pure. “You weren't kidding, right?” Ashlyn took the glass from her, setting it back on the table, and shook her head. “What are you?”

“I'm not completely sure. I believe I might be an Atlantean, from the old civilization of Atlantis,” Ashlyn answered.

“The mythical civilization Plato talked about? They're rumoured to be incredibly advanced, but no one ever proved their existence or could concrete the location of Atlantis.”

“Indeed. It is believed the civilization existed around the year 9000 before Christ,” Ashlyn continued. “And that they extinguished for some natural disaster. I, however, believe they might not have existed just here. I think they were temporary visitors, why I don't know, but I think they didn't originally come from the Earth. I think they came from Proxima Centauri b.”

“But Proxima Centauri b is a rock planet... you've got water... powers or something,” Ashlyn sat on the edge of the bed, facing her.

“It's a rock planet now, and only for the dubious information that we've gathered. I believe it was a water planet, probably not so different from the Earth, with conditions that somehow allowed for a human race there to evolve more than humanity ever did... and achieve abilities,” she added, playing with Ali's glass of water and making it grow and reduce, ice and boil, “that humans can only dream of.”

“Why Proxima Centauri b?” Ali inquired, staring at the glass as she slowly assimilated she wasn't dreaming.

“Because of this,” Ashlyn put the glass down again and opened her safe box. As she was about to introduce her hand, she suddenly stopped and turned to face Ali, dead serious. “Ali, once more I must ask you to swear secrecy to me. Please. If word spreads that I'm an alien, the government will be after me. They could lock me in their labs and do experiments with me, secret programmes of torture to gather knowledge, do you understand? If you tell anyone, even if it's just your mother, Kyle or Sydney, even if they swear secrecy to you, you'll be risking my life and betraying my trust forever. I'm only telling you because I need you, and it's already incredibly hard.”

“I swear. My lips are sealed, Ashlyn.”

Ashlyn nodded and closed her blinds and curtains, going downstairs to make sure the classroom door and stairs door were locked, and then locked her bedroom as she came back inside and finally grabbed something from the safe box, handing Ali what looked like a tablet of unknown brand.

“My father found that in the spaceship that brought me here.”

“Spaceship?” Ashlyn nodded.

“It was the night of October 19th 1985 in Cocoa Beach. My parents, my adoptive parents I mean, were in their house, a mini observatory-house they built themselves, and where they lived with my big brother, then two years old. My Dad was staring at the sky through one of their telescopes while my Mum was out in the backyard terrace at the beach. And then they saw something fall, faster than any spaceship, plane... it was faster than a blink. Dad wasn't even sure he had seen something or it had been a bug blocking the lens for a moment, but Mum saw it collide with the ocean and she knew it was a spaceship, not bigger than...” she pointed to her bedside table. “This table.”

“You're kidding.”

“Fascinating uh? My parents then heard a baby crying, and it was me, a newborn lying on the shore. I was perfectly healthy, and my Uncle Jimbo, who's a doctor, confirmed I was only a day or two of age, but I already had my eyes wide open, the colour already fully formed, a mane of hair thicker than a newborn would, and I was babbling before I was a week old. It was clear I wasn't like any normal human baby, and united to my Dad finding the ship wreck in the ocean... they knew I wasn't from here. This was also there,” Ashlyn returned to the safe box and pulled out a folded baby blanket, softer than anything Ali had ever touched before, with a word embroidered on it, resuming her seat with her.

“What is this?”

“My name. It's Atlantean.”

“They named you before they left you... Ashlyn.”

“Yes. Do you know what it means?” Ali shook her head. “Day-dream, vision. And look,” Ashlyn unfolded the blanket and Ali's jaw dropped as she revealed a large symbol embroidered on it. It was a pyramid without the lower line, with a Pegasus on top with extended wings, waves of the ocean below, and on top of the pyramid-like symbol, which Ali supposed was an 'A', a trident coming up behind the 'A' and over it, the sun.

“The ancient symbol of the Atlantis.”

“Exactly. It took Dad three days to find this between the ship wreckage,” Ashlyn returned to the tablet. “Press the button.”

Ali did so and two people came in a hologram, behind whom there was obvious chaos.

“Ashlyn, my love, we're sorry we're not with you,” started the woman.

“We only had the capacity to send you away,” the man added. “We don't have much time. We just want you to know that we are your parents, we love you, and that we sent you away to keep you safe. You are the only hope for our kind, my love.”

“Sweetheart, you are the last Atlantean alive. By the time you see this we'll be long gone... and so will our planet, Atlantis, or as you will know it in planet Earth, Proxima Centauri b. You are our only hope left.”

A explosion sounded and the image fainted for a second.

“We have to go love,” the man continued. Ali noticed their clothes, that looked straight out of Star Wars' tunics, had the same Atlantis symbol on the chest. “Just remember where you belong. Stay safe, be happy, be strong... _We'll meet again where the sun meets the ocean._ ”

“We love you so much Ashlyn!” the mother barely had time to say that before a larger explosion, screams or horror and a siren sounded, and the hologram vanished. Ali looked at Ashlyn, who looked grim.

“Your parents,” Ashlyn nodded. “What did he say, after be strong... it wasn't English?”

“It was Atlantean. I've been studying it my whole life, my parents had also studied it forever with ancient texts and using my name to figure out most of the alphabet, and I'm fluent on it by now.”

“How come you learned it, if there isn't a publicly known Atlantean language?”

“Perks of being in a family of know-it-alls. There are books hidden in Egypt, from ancient times, with all the wit you'd want to have,” Ashlyn chuckled. “Most of them haven't been deciphered, they're in ancient languages... but I'm exceptionally smart.” She joked with half a smile, and Ali snorted a laugh.

“I have noticed. And modest.”

“Very modest indeed.”

  
  



	7. Uncovering you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made up almost every single fact about the Atlanteans and the Atlantis based on my previous fic, 'Atlantis', which inspired this one. I was just having fun inventing things.

**Chapter 7: Uncovering you.**

Ali looked thoughtful for a moment, returning the objects to the safe box and closing it before walking back to the bed and sitting with Ashlyn, who was looking serious and a little grim. Ali imagined if she had seen a video of her family's last moments, she'd be like that too.

“You said that you need me. What for?” Ali inquired softly, putting a hand on her knee. “You're smarter than I am.”

“I'm a stranger to your world, Ali. I can learn, memorize facts infinitely and fit in, and still I can't help being... an alien,” Ashlyn shrugged. “That's how I made it so fast through my education. The social conventions that come naturally to you, don't to me, even when I've been here practically my entire life. Like... back in high school, when I first dated someone, a guy actually, my natural instinct told me I shall have his baby and insure the continuation of my species, and thank God he found me too straight-to-sex person and chickened out and afterwards my parents gave me the talk and put some sense into me. But still, my natural instincts differ from yours. I had no problem or remorse destroying that guy's wrist. I didn't feel a need to wait for police, to call a doctor... in some ways I'm more advanced than humanity and in others, I fall backwards. I lack you guys' diplomacy, ethics... I manage to keep myself in check and act according to those I've been taught most of the time, but not always. I guess my species are far more brutal, perhaps that's why they were so great for wars, like Spartans.”

Ali smiled softly.

“The fact that you're a brute still doesn't answer my question.” She said gently, making Ashlyn's lips curve into a tiny smile.

“You're right, forgive me. What I mean is that I don't know in which way my true nature could influence my investigations and studies, and all I want is to find my people, Ali. I need to know what happened to my parents, any family I had... why am I growing up barely knowing what I am or what I'm capable of, in a world where I'll always be pointed at as a weirdo, never really fit in, never really feel fully comfortable in... and if I don't have someone so mentally gifted as you, who can actually help while keeping me in check, making sure the whole process stays within what's humanly ethic, I might screw it all up.”

“But you have your family, your parents are scientists. Don't get me wrong, I feel privileged to be a part of this, to have earned your trust enough for you to tell me all of this... but I can't help but wonder, wouldn't they be more useful than a twenty-one year old student?”

“They helped me for years. Everything I ever found out was because of them,” Ashlyn agreed. “Unfortunately last summer, government bastards barged in my parents' house, while I was surfing. I'm a big surfer,” she bit her lip and sighed, shaking her head. “I didn't realize what was happening until it was too late. Mum wasn't home, it was just Dad, and we had been investigating what happened to my brother, we had come close to discovering some sort of... battle between planets.”

“He died in a war with aliens?”

“Or something like that. Anyway, we couldn't be sure, and then... I saw smoke from the ocean and saw it. Our house was in flames, Ali. I arrived there fast enough to see the bastards from secret service leave, and they didn't see me. I rushed inside... I guess I'm made of a bigger amount of water than the average human, so I don't die with human shit, but I still can't be in flames for a long time.”

“You'd vapour?”

“I'm not sure. All I know is it really starts to hurt. I managed to find Dad, but... it was too late. I tried, for hours, and I couldn't save him. Eventually I called the police, the ambulance... no one could save him. He was killed for whatever he knew, Ali. That's why I really left the NASA. I suspect they were behind it. I think they don't know my mother wasn't there, so I managed to get death certifies for both of my parents. As far as the government is concerned, I've got no family, except for lower class extended family who aren't scientists or know anything of this, so therefore they're safe. In any case, I put protection on them just in case.”

“So your mother is safe. How are you protecting them? Why didn't they go after you?”

“Abby Wambach's parents have been my parents' best friends since they were toddlers, we're pretty much family. Abby and I grew up together, our parents are each other's Godparents, and my parents and the Wambachs actually worked together when it was first Wambach & Harris Corp. My parents dropped out when they had Christopher and decided they wanted a calmer life, so they took the money and built our house, a mini observatory, where they could live hippie lives as they wanted. But they remained the best of friends, the Wambachs visited us day and night, always there for us, and vice versa... my Uncle Jimbo even saved Abby's mother's life once, when she had cancer. Anyway, now they're protecting my family and Mum secretly works with them again, under a fake identity. She lives in a safe place the Wambachs built for her, and they have security secretly protecting the others. Like my family, the Wambachs mistrust the Government and the NASA, which is why they work on their own. The Government has tried to intervene their company more than once, never made it. And the reason they're not going after me,” explained Ashlyn as outside, the sun set behind the buildings, “is because they know how brilliant I am and how much information from the NASA I have. I don't think they have any idea of what I am, I think they only burnt our house because they thought my parents had uncovered their secret plans for intergalactic wars and wanted to burn everything, included them. But as for me, I think they doubt I know anything.”

“How can they be so sure?” questioned Ali.

“They probably aren't, which is why I still need to be guarded, and we need to be very secretive. No one will suspect of you, you're just a student,” said Ashlyn. “But I believe they think I'm done. After my Dad was killed, I lost my shit. I flew off the handle in the NASA office, said I was done helping anybody if they weren't going to help me. Afterwards I was depressed for a while, became an alcoholic... I think that made them believe they had nothing to worry about. Ever since I've remained with a low profile, I don't want to give them any reason to believe I know more.”

“Do you? Know more?”

Ashlyn sighed deeply and shrugged.

“I know that this government of this race I don't know killed their own heroes, and were willing to kill their own innocent people to protect their asses. What is it exactly that they're covering? I don't know Ali. But to me, and maybe it's just my Atlantean nature, betraying your own people, those you're supposed to protect? That's the highest treason there is. In the Atlantean civilization, the leaders headed the wars, didn't remain in castles... and if they died, society picked a new leader democratically, like elections, between the most qualified and stronger men and women. We may be brutes for many things, but we know loyalty and trust and it actually means something for us. Knowing that this government did... tells me they've very, very dangerous. Enough for me to have stopped investigating my brother's death. I know they're behind his death, that's all I needed to know.”

Ali nodded slowly, thoughtful.

“You said Wambach Corp. sells information to the governments and space organizations across the world, are you sure you can trust them?”

“Completely,” Ashlyn nodded. “I know the data they sell, and it's meaningless. It's about creation of equipment for space organizations, such as telescopes, or information on discovery of planets, any meteor they may see approaching Earth... the part related to aliens is top secret. No one knows Wambach Corp. investigates that too. Only those of us who can be called family participate on that, not even normal employees. For the rest of the world, they're just the Apple of space.”

Ali nodded again, taking a deep breath as she assimilated all the information. Then, she playfully elbowed Ashlyn and smiled.

“Thanks for sharing all of this with me. I promise I won't tell a soul.” Ashlyn chuckled.

“I knew I could trust you. I see it in your eyes.”

They stared at each other for a moment, looking warmly at one another, and then Ali looked playful, patting her knee.

“So what else can you do? Amaze me.”

Ashlyn grinned and opened her hand, creating a gentle snowfall on them, making Ali aw.

“I can control water, what makes me think Atlantis must have been underwater or... surrounded, an island like Plato said. Aside from that... I'm sure you've noticed I'm incredibly strong, that truck didn't push me to the ground I... threw myself to keep the appearances.”

Ali snorted a laugh.

“Cute. And how come you can heal?”

“Only superficial wounds, nothing major. My parents reasoned that if the human being is between fifty and sixty-five percent water, and I'm about eighty, maybe that's how I can manage to close external wounds, redirecting blood or something. I don't really control it I just put my hands over a superficial wound, feel it warm and... it heals. All I can tell is that it uses heat.”

“Oh, I can attest to that.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“Sorry? You cured me. You're amazing,” Ali grinned, and Ashlyn felt a weight off her chest. “What about the acrobatics? Or is that a goalkeeper thing?”

“Atlantean, guilty. And I can hold my breath for two hours straight under water, and... sometimes I can change shape, like water would. I don't have the utmost control of it, but for example, I can run extra fast, I feel like I become like gas and just get pushed with the air or something. And sometimes...” she blushed, embarrassed.

“What? Come on, you can tell me.”

“Sometimes when I get really... horny,” Ashlyn blushed more and Ali smiled sweetly at her shyness. “I can grow a... penis.”

“A dick? What?”

“I don't control it, but it happened a couple times when I was a teenager, thankfully never with a partner, because it doesn't happen every single time I'm horny. I don't control it yet, I don't quite understand yet why it happens but it happens. The women things vanish, the men things appear. My Mum hypothesizes that it could have something to do with a natural instinct to procreate and secure the survival of my species, the same way many animals in Earth have very weird reproductive systems or can be both female and male in different stages.”

“Indeed. Clownfish, for example.”

“Really?”

“I knew something the great Ashlyn Harris didn't?” Ali smiled, smug, and Ashlyn laughed, nodded. “You know maybe your body figured it's need for a dick to reproduce once it realized you were gay. Because you don't do guys anymore, do you?”

“I don't and actually...” Ashlyn pursed her lips in thought. “It kinda makes sense.”

“But how do you just... grow... I mean, isn't it painful?”

“A little,” Ashlyn shrugged. “It's like when the nipples become erect though. My clit grows and transforms and my entrance closes and swells creating some sort of... less hanging balls.”

“Have you ever...?”

“Used it?” Ashlyn smiled and shook her head. “Like I said, it never happened with a partner, and I'm extremely grateful for it. I don't get my period either, so I'm not sure I'm fertile as a woman, I think I may not be for some reason, but I'm not sure. We don't know much of the Atlanteans' sexual life... all we could find out, my family and I, when I was a extremely confused teenager, was that Atlanteans seem to live longer than humans, keep young for longer, and have one or two children, usually. Apparently a normal Atlantean pregnancy lasts between three and four months.”

“Wicked.”

“Right? And we found evidence that they can transform into the opposite gender if the circumstances require it for survival. Say only women survived a catastrophe, one of them would transform into a men to keep the species going.”

“Which supports the theory that you get your little buddy when you get excited thinking of other women,” Ali teased with an elbow.

“Haha,” Ashlyn dead-paned, but smiled. “I bet I'm not so attractive anymore, am I?”

Ali shook her head, smiling small, and cupped Ashlyn's face,, bringing her closer.

“You're horrendously attractive, don't you worry,” Ali whispered before their lips met. At first, it was gentle and soft. Ashlyn's strong arms wrapped around her torso while Ali's wrapped around her neck, a hand burying in her short hair, and their lips parted for a more intense kiss. After a few moments, Ali separated and searched for her phone in her pocket, lifting a finger to make Ashlyn wait.

“What are you doing?”

“I'm sorry I need to text Sydney to let her know I'm... sleeping at a friend's,” Ali said, quickly texting. “Tomorrow is Saturday and if I don't appear by the dorms for Friday night post-game partying, they'll worry.”

“Oh. You're not coming back tonight?”

“What do you think, smarty-pants?”

Ali turned her phone off and grabbed a fistful of Ashlyn's t-shirt to once more pull her in for a kiss, this time way more intense.

  
  



	8. The nature of us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has Explicit sexual content, you've been warned. Also, due to the fantasy nature of this fanfic, one of the main characters involved develops male reproductive organs. If you don't like, stop reading now and skip to chapter 9, instead of leaving some hateful comments. Thanks!

**Chapter 8: The nature of us.**

Their kisses had heated to the point that Ashlyn could hardly think anymore. Clothes had flown and she was developing a hard on that was now rubbing against Ali's wetness insistently while she devoured Ali's breasts and pinned her against the bed. Meanwhile Ali was enjoying the greatest pleasure of her life, moaning and writhing in bed as Ashlyn's talented hands massaged her body and her talented mouth, that had swollen her lips and caused numerous hickeys across her neck and clavicles, drove her nipples to becoming harder and more engorged than Ali had ever seen or felt them.

If Ali was already fit and muscled, a true athlete with a very tanned body and round, firm breasts, Ashlyn was even more fit. She had a swimmer's wide back covered in freckles, with sun-kissed shoulders, and was more muscled and fit than any woman Ali knew, which was saying a lot for an athlete. She wasn't so big in muscles to be a body builder, but Ali could tell she had been in the Marines. And she finally met Ali's hidden tattoo, her brother's name, Christopher Ryan, below her breast, plus a very nice surprise in the shape of a large colourful tattoo with flowers and butterflies, that covered Ali's left side. In truth, Ali was more than turned on. She was boiling, and couldn't get enough of Ashlyn's soft, warm skin all over, and the pleasure she was causing her.

But then, Ashlyn's mouth found her mound, her strong hands parting her legs and putting them over her shoulders, and just as Ali reached the climax, she remembered something.

“Wait, wait!”

“Are you okay?”

Ashlyn had instantly climbed back over her, her hardness leaking against Ali's lower belly while she held her body up putting the weight on her hands and knees, staring worriedly at her.

“I'm fine, it's just...” Ali blushed. “Ash I'm... I want to do this, I do, but uh, I'm a virgin.”

Ashlyn's eyebrows raised and she looked surprised at her.

“Really? You carry a lot of confidence for a virgin.”

“I assure you I am. So, since you're not human and you don't know the protocol... basically it means I need you to be very gentle, very slow, very careful, okay? Because that,” she pointed to Ashlyn's member, “is huge. And my thingy, not so much.”

“Right,” Ashlyn nodded. “Right... yeah, I read about these things, I'm a scientist after all. Okay... don't worry, I've got this.” She kissed her cheek.

“Also do you have a condom?”

“Shit, no... Like I said this never happened with...” she motioned to Ali. “Maybe we shouldn't do it...”

“Are you kidding? I need you inside we'll just...” Ali was so horny she couldn't think much. “Can you go tomorrow morning and get me the day after pill in the clinic?”

“Yes, sure. That should be enough, right?”

“Hopefully. Now just... please do it, I'm boiling hot...”

“Okay,” Ashlyn kissed her again. “I really care about you Ali. I really do.”

“I care about you a lot too,” Ali cupped her face, kissing her hard. She had had her fair share of fun with Ashlyn's breasts too, but her lips were her favourite. Her kisses were just addictive.

“Tell me if I hurt you and I promise I won't be a brute.”

“I trust you,” Ali kissed her again and felt the warm, wide, soft and silky head of Ashlyn's member nudge between her lower lips while one of her longer fingers found her entrance and slowly pressed inside, making her moan into the kiss. Her finger was soon joined by another and now Ali was moaning too steadily to kiss her, so Ashlyn's lips attacked her neck while her back arched, pressing her breasts with Ashlyn's and making her moan. The two fingers caressed the velvet insides and opened and closed like scissors before a third nudged its way in with a bit of difficulty. Ali was so dripping now that Ashlyn was fairly sure she'd go in easily.

“Ready?” Ashlyn asked, beginning to press her tip against Ali's entrance, that indeed felt too small.

“Yes, just...”

“Slow, I know,” Ashlyn kissed her again and smiled, giving more tender, loving kisses across her face. “You're so beautiful... all my previous experience with a dick is toys okay? So tell me if I'm doing it wrong.”

“Okay ah, oh...” Ali closed her eyes, feeling her entrance stretch impossibly as Ashlyn's insistent member pushed its way in, and then made a gesture of pain and Ashlyn stopped, letting her get used to the broad head.

“It's okay. The head's in, you're doing so well,” Ashlyn's thumb found her clit and rubbed it insistently, sweetly peppering kisses wherever she could reach.

“Go on, it's fine...” Ali said finally, softly stroking her nails up and down Ashlyn's back, making it arch in pleasure. She kept feeling fuller and fuller and fuller, almost painfully so, and just when she thought she was going to split in two, she felt and heard Ashlyn's pelvis slap hers.

“All in beautiful,” Ashlyn murmured, sweating. “God you're so tight, so good...”

“Is it good?” Ali smiled, wrapping her arms around her and pulling her closer.

“It's so good... so good...” Ashlyn began a soft pull and push, moaning with her face buried on Ali's neck, and Ali started to enjoy it, moaning, until she had enough of the slow pace and wrapped her legs around Ashlyn's waist, pressing her heels on her gluteus hard to push her in. Ashlyn moaned and understood what she was saying, starting to fuck her on earnest.

None of them was going to last long. Ashlyn bit on Ali's shoulder to keep herself from coming, but when she felt Ali's climax and her walls clenched Ashlyn impossibly hard, she came undone as well, filling Ali up even more.

When Ali woke up the first time, she felt Ashlyn's warmth all around her and it pulled her back to sleep. At last, she woke up in the dark room, as the blinds were still shut down, as well as the curtains, and stretched to turn the lamp on, disoriented, seeing on her watch that it was nearly ten already. She turned and smiled seeing Ashlyn was stretched like a star, sleeping profoundly facing the ceiling, the duvet having gone down enough to expose her chest.

“Morning sleepy head,” whispered Ali, kissing her softly. It was warm in the bedroom, but still Ali enjoyed tucking herself against her and tentatively lowered her hand under the duvet to confirm Ashlyn was back to being 100% feminine. They had had sex thrice before they finally fell asleep, and Ashlyn's hardness had only resisted the first time, so it had been an interesting night. “Ash, wake up,” Ali kissed her cheek. “I need those pills and if anyone sees me getting them there'll be questions. Ash...”

“Uhm?” Ashlyn's eyes popped open and she yawned, rolling and instinctively seeking Ali's warmth, but Ali giggled and gently pushed her away.

“Ashlyn, time to get up.”

“Why?” Ashlyn yawned again, sleepy.

“I need the day after pills, unless you want to be a mother, and I don't quite yet.” Ashlyn's eyes finally opened and she smiled as Ali sat up and looked down on her appreciatively.

“Good morning, gorgeous.”

“Good morning,” Ali leaned to peck her lips. “How did you sleep?”

“Amazing,” she groaned as she sat up and stretched. “How are you feeling?”

“I'm okay, hungry though.”

“Tell you what, we could shower, without funny business, I know you're in a rush,” Ashlyn proposed, “and then, we could go to the clinic, you wait outside while I get your thingies, and I could take you out for breakfast as our first date.”

“Breakfast first day? Unconventional but lovely,” Ali grinned. “I'd like that.”

“Yeah?” Ashlyn couldn't help looking like a excited kid, and kissed her softly, then separating and brushing a strand of dark hair behind Ali's ear, as her eyes darted over Ali in such a sweet way that Ali blushed. “I really do care. You're not just some student. You're...” her lips ghosted over Ali's shoulder. “Ali.”

“You better mean that,” Ali brought her face in for a kiss. “'Cause I'm pretty whipped, y'know?”

“Good, I'd hate to be the only one,” Ashlyn grinned smugly. “Now come get your pretty little ass to the shower.”

As it turns out, teachers had a whole bathroom adjacent to their bedrooms. Ali had never gotten to know the teachers' rooms in such depth, but as Ashlyn massaged her back in the shower, she found herself unable to think whether she was jealous or not.

Finally, two hours later, they were sitting at a lake's pier, watching the horizon and eating muffins they had picked-up for breakfast.

“I was so starved, we forgot dinner last night,” said Ali, her mouth full of food. Ashlyn was discreetly playing with the lake's water, creating little waves of Ali's entertainment.

“My apologizes.”

“It's okay, we had so much fun,” Ali sniggered, fixing the neck of Ashlyn's nice shirt. “I left you so bruised.”

“Did you?” Ashlyn chuckled and shrugged. “Good. That way I have something to remind me of you later.” Ashlyn had gone get the muffins while Ali went back to her dorm, changed, told her friends excitedly that she had a date last night, and then excused herself saying she was going to meet up with some other friends but would tell them all about her date later. So now both were in clean clothes, happily enjoying their date.

“Can I tell Syd and closest friends that you and I are dating? Only Syd goes to your class, and I'd trust the others with my life too. And I didn't tell them what we're doing in the office. Sydney has been teasing me for ages about the sex eyes we apparently have been giving each other, she's dying for us to get together.”

Ashlyn nodded.

“As long as they keep it a secret and while we're in the university campus they keep treating me as a professional, yes. There aren't rules against teachers and students dating, but still, I don't want the dean meddling on our stuff, nor the government to know how important you are to me. If they hurt you for any reason...”

“I know,” Ali nodded. “I'll be discreet.”

“Thanks,” Ashlyn pecked her cheek. Here, they were alone and comfortable. “So you haven't dated before?”

“I have, just... only guys. And never went as far as to see one naked. My brother has been teasing I'm gay for ages, but I never met a girl who made me think about it.”

“I'm honoured,” Ashlyn side smiled.

“What about you? Surely you've had a billion girlfriends,” Ali teased her.

“Because I'm sexy as fuck?”

“And still so humble,” Ali returned to their ongoing joke, making her snort a laugh.

“Well, I've had one boyfriend, several female flings, one night stands... and a couple serious relationships with women. Never told any of them who I am though.”

“So why me?”

“Because you and I aren't so different. You're a scientist, you understand us who come from the stars. Most people get scared of us, and comics don't help.”

“Yeah... wait a second, if you've seen the comics, do you do like them? Go around making justice?”

“It doesn't fit with my idea of keeping a low profile but sure, now and then if I see someone who needs help and I think I can help, I do chime in. I was a Marine after all, I still owe myself to the people.”

“Even those who aren't your race?”

Ashlyn's lips curved into a side smile, staring at the clouds.

“I owe my life to those who aren't my race. My adoptive family gave me more than just Ashlyn. My middle name is Michelle after my late grandmother, my surname is theirs... they've given me a home, people to call family, toys, education... everything. They've really been the best family I could've had here, who knows, perhaps even better than my biological family.”

Ali looked sadly at her and reached to squeeze her hand.

“You must miss them so much. I can't imagine if anything happened to my family.”

Ashlyn sighed, nodding.

“Sometimes I still have nightmares about it. But life goes on,” said Ashlyn, forcing a smile. “And I rub off from my mother's strength. She's a true rock, she keeps going no matter what you throw to her, she's inspirational, and incredibly intelligent. I almost ran away, decided I endangered them all by sticking around, but she grabbed me and she said 'I am not losing my baby daughter too'. She reminded me to her I'm not some creature from space or someone else's child. To her, I'm her daughter. Her baby girl, as she often calls me. And I don't know what would push a parent to throw their newborn into bloody space with no guarantees she'd survive or be found by somebody but... I know my Mum here would never do that.”

Ali looked thoughtful for a moment.

“Your biological parents knew you'd end up with the Harrises though.”

“What?”

“Your Mum, in the video, she told you you would know the planet as Proxima Centauri b, decades before we discovered it, when nobody called it that way. To your parents it was Atlantis, after all, correct?”

“Correct... The Atlanteans are rumoured to have been great astrologists too yeah, that they could predict the future, sometimes. I don't imagine they were so good though, if they couldn't predict their extinction though.”

“Maybe they could. Maybe your parents found out while your Mum was pregnant, and only had enough time to figure out a way to keep you safe. Maybe they somehow knew about the Harrises, knew you'd be good with them, and sent you there with full knowledge that, with their technologies, you'd make it safe and sound because they had seen your future with them already.”

Ali's quick thoughts made Ashlyn's jaw drop slightly and she looked at Ali, impressed.

“How come I had never thought of that?” Ali grinned.

“I so love baffling you.”

Ashlyn shook her head, smiling.

“Thank you. That's actually a very comforting theory... and you know, I'm all in for the student being better than the master.”

They leaned and kissed, smiling into the kiss, completely whipped, while they enjoyed the sun on their skin. Eventually, they walked back to Ashlyn's car and Ashlyn drove them to the University.

“I have to go have lunch with the girls and then study,” Ali said as she parked. “But I will see you tonight? I could fetch us some food, we could eat dinner in your office and call it a second date while looking at the stars.” Ashlyn looked happy at the idea.

“I like that, it'll give me something to look forward. I have teachers' meeting,” she made a bored face and Ali giggled, kissing her softly. “See you later.”

“Bye, have fun!”

“You too!”

Ashlyn followed her with her eyes to ensure she made it safely to the dorms and then returned to her own office, feeling so chirpy she couldn't help grinning the entire way there.

  
  



	9. Learning you

**Chapter 9: Learning you.**

Ashlyn's favourite part of dating Ali was the long conversations. Their relationship was top secret for a total of two months, and it involved hours spent professionally in class or in the office doing their own study and research, coupled with hours strolling in parks, around lakes, having ice-cream or doing weekend trips to the beach, just the two of them, as they did for Valentine's Day. They only consented to Kyle and Ashlyn's Mum knowing, and only because they weren't even in the University. After two months, however, Sydney found out, and so did Ashlyn's best friend, who Ali discovered was Coach Megan Rapinoe.

“The Coach? Seriously?” Ali asked from Ashlyn's bed, as she watched the older woman get into her pyjamas, that were nothing but some shorts, and wash off her make-up after the last class of the day. Ali had been waiting there two hours doing homework while Ashlyn finished the late evening class with first-year students.

“Yeah, Pinoe. She's not blind, she sees the hickeys and, by the way, she's got... special skills if you wish, too.”

“She's an alien?” Ali's eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

“Not exactly,” Ashlyn slid under the covers next to her and smiled, cupping her jaw and kissing her. “Hi...”

“Hi there,” Ali grinned, kissing her again and pulling her body closer. “So what is she?”

“Dumb. When she was little she fell in a stream that turns out, had nuclear waste. She got very sick, almost died, but eventually survived and earned some skills.”

“Really? That's out of Marvel.”

“Well I wouldn't encourage anybody to jump in nuclear waste, she just got lucky, but most people would die, I'm sure.”

“So what can she do?”

“She uh...” Ashlyn rolled on her back so Ali could get her regular position with her head on her chest and an arm over her waist. “She can see through solids, up to three kilometres approximately. She has to really mean it to do it, but she can. And she has ultra speed, far faster than anyone I know, sharp aim, and fire skills like, she can melt things and stuff.”

“That's so cool,” Ali mindlessly traced the lines of abs Ashlyn had while the older woman stroked her hair. “How do you meet people like that?”

“I rescued her from that stream. It was a school trip, we were classmates. Megan's family is originally from Portland, but her parents came to work in the Space Coast when she was young and so she joined my school. We were exploring a national park and she slid with the mud, ended-up in the water. She started screaming the water was burning her skin, and I jumped in to get her. Since I can freeze the water, I cooled it down to get her out and then dried myself before anybody noticed I had jumped in too, told the teacher Pinoe made it out herself. Poor kid was already unconscious, skin red and raw.”

“Must've been so painful.”

“Yeah. I tried healing her but I couldn't and I freaked out, to be honest, we all did. Police later investigated and found out a factory was illegally dumping nuclear waste, tons of river species died.”

“Bastards! And you've been friends since?”

“Yeah, she's my bestie. She's bat shit crazy and so much fun.” Ali smiled.

“I know! And she has a girlfriend, Sue, they often make out in the parking lot and are so fucking cute.”

“They are. So anyway, she saw the hickeys you left and I forgot to cover one day. All my students of the day teased the crap out of me and so did she.”

“Guilty,” Ali giggled, moving to kiss her. She was so infatuated by Ashlyn, she couldn't help wanting to be close all the time. Her smell, her softness, her voice, it was just everything with her.

“And I told her we're dating. She cheered,” Ashlyn caressed her face sweetly. “Pinoe is trustworthy, and you're sure Sydney is too, right?”

“Absolutely. We've been friends since kindergarten, we're more sisters than friends. And she lives two streets from me, here we're roommates and she doesn't complain once when I disappear. Although I think I should start compensating her... been passing from her a bit lately.”

“To sit two hours in my room waiting for me? Aw, I feel so flattered!”

“You better,” Ali nuzzled against her chest. “I'm so tired...”

“Me too. Let's just sleep, and tomorrow will be another day. Goodnight beautiful.”

“Goodnight sunshine.” They kissed and Ashlyn adjusted the blankets around them, squeezing her closer as she fell asleep.

It was just a matter of time, however, that more people around them found out, and eventually, Ali's family did, which gave Ashlyn a little heart attack. The brunette had called Ashlyn on a late weekend night they were spending apart to inform her, while Ashlyn was having drinks with Abby and Megan.

“Hi sweetie,” Ashlyn grinned hearing her girlfriend's voice. “Having fun with the girls?”

“Hi! Yeah,” the professor waved down as her friends whistled teasingly. “They say hi. How's it going with the family?”

“It's cool, speaking of that, can you come tomorrow for lunch?”

“To your house?” Ashlyn frowned, getting up to seek privacy in the rooftop garden of the bar. “Sure that's a good idea?”

“Well my Mum and Dad insist.”

“Your Dad came? And how come they insist?”

Ashlyn could almost hear Ali's nerves.

“Uh, Kyle found one of your love letters just as he was helping me organize my room. He was getting all loud and excited about us and then Mum barged in to see what the noise was about and Ash, my Mum knew Kyle was gay before anybody else, she always just _knows._ Anyway, she loves you, but Dad was in the house because he came for the weekend to help with a plumbing issue we're having, and when he saw our faces coming down for dinner, he just went 'okay, what's the bomb?' and anyway, now he knows. And he says he wants to meet you. He doesn't really love that I'm dating a professor, I think...”

“You think,” Ashlyn gulped nervously. “Do us a favour and don't let him know about my thingy, uh?”

“Don't worry, all of that is exclusively between you and I, not even Syd knows. Anyway, they want you to come for lunch so Dad can see you are, in Mum's words, 'an angel'.”

“Bless her,” Ashlyn sighed. “Right, at which time then?”

“Eleven thirty and you can help around? Helps make a good impression.”

“Will do. I have to go now, but don't worry uh? It'll be fine.”

“Okay. Sorry Ash.”

“It's okay. Kisses!”

“Kisses!”

Ashlyn hung up and bit her lip nervously. She was never good with fathers, really.

The next day came sooner than expected. Ashlyn left the house with more than enough time so she could drive more calmly and afford getting lost if it happened, without being late. And as she drove, window down to let the warm air of the Spring into the car, she couldn't stop thinking about everything Ali had told her about her family. She and her Dad were very close, but he was apparently a bit of a difficult type sometimes. While Debbie was all cheerfulness and warmth, Kenneth was a pure Northerner with German roots, a serious guy, introverted where his ex was extroverted, and harder to bond with, causing both children to be closer with their mother, even though they still loved their father. Kenneth had been homophobic, and put Kyle through very hard times with policies such as 'men don't cry', 'man up' or 'gays are disgusting'. He had changed and relearned over the years, but Ali had still been very anxious about him discovering Ali was with another woman.

However, it must've gone well, according to Ali's texts and phone calls in the last twelve hours.

Parking close to the house, Ashlyn fixed the rear-view mirror to check herself. Her hair had grown so that the tips now brushed her shoulders slightly, and she had gotten it re-dyed so it was blonde, nearly platinum, and used a lot of product to make it look like she was just surfing, showing her waves. She had soft make-up that emphasized her eyes and covered any stress marks and bags under her eyes, and had dressed to look the most feminine she could look while still being true to herself, because she didn't want Kenneth to fall in the straights' common misconception that every butch had to be gay and every gay had to be butch. So she was wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt with little buttons open at the neck, a casual suit jacket and matching trousers, with some of her nicest short boots with just a teeny bit of flat heel, and she was feeling badass and confident, and yet a little nervous.

She pushed the doorbell and waited, and a moment later Ali opened the door and grinned. She was looking hot too, with jeans and a cute blouse and heels.

“Hi babe! Looking great!” Ali pulled her in for a kiss. “Please come in.”

“I bought...” Ashlyn waved a bottle of wine. “Brownie points?”

“Smart,” Ali smiled, closing the door after her.

“You're looking really nice by the way,” Ashlyn whispered to her ear. “For a change.”

Ali giggled and blushed, walking in behind her.

“Kyle and Mum, you know Ash, and this is my Dad, Ken.”

“Nice to see you again honey,” Debbie hugged her and took the wine. “Oh, look, French wine Ken! Thank you sweetheart.”

“It's nothing,” Ashlyn smiled, and Kyle hugged her.

“I can't tell you how happy I am you're sleeping with my sister,” he whispered at her ear, making her ears crimson red.

And there stood Kenneth, about as tall as Ashlyn and slightly shorter than Kyle, his mouth a line and his eyes showing no emotion, with short, grey hair. He just looked so serious, even as he managed a polite smile and shook Ashlyn's hand.

“Nice to meet you, Ken,” Ashlyn said. “Your daughter speaks so lovely of you.”

“Well, she says you're apparently a really smart woman, a former Marine, right?”

“Yes,” Ashlyn nodded, casually shoving a hand in her pocket so she could cross fingers this would go right. Kenneth's eyes were so dark it was hard to tell anything by them.

“How long did you serve?”

“Just a couple years.”

“So little? How come?”

“The NASA called me,” Ashlyn shrugged. “They sounded pretty desperate on the phone, they were worried they were falling behind in the domination of space or something,” she side smiled, half joking.

Ali gave her mother a glance with urgency to rescue them, while Kyle looked amused, and Debbie intervened.

“Well Ashlyn honey mind helping me out with lunch? Ali says you're a good cook, right?”

“Actually Debbie, Ali told me you guys are having some plumbing issue and I'm quite a handy woman,” Ashlyn wasn't going to shy away from a challenge. “I wouldn't mind helping Ken with it, if he could use an extra pair of hands?”

“You know, not a bad idea,” Ken nodded. “I almost got it fixed, but I think there's a leak somewhere I haven't figured out.”

“I'll help you find it,” Ashlyn said confidently. Over Ken's shoulder, Ali mouther 'what are you doing?!' but Ashlyn gave her a small nod and a dissimulated thumb's up and followed Kenned upstairs to the attic, where the issue seemed to be.

“Debbie says the water is not coming in strong,” Ken commented as they looked around. “But everything looks fine, only possibility is a leak somewhere. Of course this house is two storeys big plus basement and attic so it could be anywhere...”

“Not anywhere.”

“Sorry?”

“Well,” Ashlyn shrugged. “If it's been leaking, I bet it's nowhere like the kitchen or the bathrooms, or even the bedrooms, where they would've noticed a wet patch on the walls or ceiling. Do they have a storage area?”

“Uh... yes, over there,” he pointed to an ensuite closet in the attic and Ashlyn opened, immediately catching water dripping from the ceiling.

“Found it!”

“Shit,” Kenneth looked up and frowned. “That's going to need major repairs... We better call a plumber.”

“No need, I can have it fixed by lunch time.”

“Can you?”

“I had to study mechanics for the NASA. I'll only need to stop the water flow for fifteen minutes.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Ashlyn nodded, confident.

“Ashlyn if you're trying to impress...”

“Ken, with all due respect,” said the woman. “I don't need to try to impress. I need to fix a pipe before my girlfriend's attic becomes a lake. I need a drill, I'll make a little hole, fix the pipe leak and then maybe you can fill the hole or Debbie herself, with some plaster or something.”

“Won't you need to change the pipes?”

“No. Just please get me that and uh...” Ashlyn looked thoughtful for a moment. “Shut down the water. And get me a lantern, please.”

“Right. And how will you close the hole? You'll need a soldering iron and some welding gun maybe...”

“Ken, just get those, please, and if I need a welding gun I'll let you know.”

“Okay...”

He didn't look like he trusted her, but got her everything and then observed as if waiting for her to blow it. Ashlyn carefully drilled a hole big enough for her hand to fit in the wall, that was merely wood and plaster so it wasn't too hard, and then examined the pipe.

“Oh it's not a big deal, it appears the union between two pipes loosened and it dripped a lot, I just have to squeeze the screw better,” Ashlyn put the lantern in her mouth to hold it. “Ken, would you mind stepping back a little? This is a tight space and I get a bit anxious, I need some space to work.”

“Sure,” Kenneth looked sceptical but stepped back. And then Ashlyn wrapped her fist around the leak and focused on getting the leak covered in water with her own alien skills and then heated the water more and more, until there was smoke coming off it and the pipe was beginning to melt. And once it melted a little bit, it was just like welding and in a moment, Ashlyn had fixed the issue and it looked like new.

“Done,” Ashlyn said. “Turn the water back on.”

She waited until Ken returned, but she could already hear the water coming back through the pipes without leaking, and while he was out, she had heated the leaked water to make it evaporate and dry off.

“Jesus,” Kenned examined the pipes, impressed. “How even...?”

“A magician doesn't reveal all their tricks,” Ashlyn smiled. “Sorry about the hole in the wall though, but just a bit of plaster should be enough to fix it. Should we help Debbie now?”

The two returned and were cheered for having fixed the issue, and at no point did Ashlyn say she had done it. On the contrary, she praised Ken's skills and helped out cooking along with Kyle, while Ken and Ali, who were worthless in the kitchen, devoted to setting the table and making sure everything looked decent.

At last, they sat down to eat and Ali smiled warmly at Ashlyn across the table, confident her girlfriend was charming her family just enough. But Kenneth clearly wasn't getting Ashlyn off the hook. Ali was his youngest baby and he wasn't about to let anyone date her, and the fact that Ashlyn was doing so made him think she wasn't being professional.

“So Ashlyn, I don't want to be impolite but as a teacher I must say that I was very surprised a fellow teacher would breach the strict student-teacher line of professionalism just to have some fun with a kid. Does your boss know about this, does the dean think is okay?”

“He doesn't because I find it unprofessional to mix personal romantic life with my job, but American law says that as long as the student is an adult who's consented, there's nothing wrong with them dating a teacher. I know a lot of people who married someone who was their teacher, after all,” said Ashlyn, not letting his thoughts affect her negatively. “I understand you have to give me a hard time because you're a father and Ali's your youngest child, it's natural to be protective, but Ken you should then know I'm not one to breach professionalism lines and that even if I had done it, it wouldn't be to 'have fun with a kid'.”

“Aren't you?” he retorted.

“No,” said Ashlyn serious, and glanced at Ali for a moment. “I'm four years older than your daughter, not fifty. If I wasn't her teacher, our relationship wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary. When it comes to class, I'm Professor Harris and she's Ms Krieger, and so it stays as long as we're involved in an educational activity. There is no favouritism either, she's the best student of my class because her knowledge and wit is remarkably superior to that of her classmates, and it was in such way for her entire University experience, for what her previous teacher informed me, and for what I could see before we got involved, so if anybody demanded for me to prove she deserves the grades she has and they're not a product of favouritism, I have countless exams, projects, papers Ali's done, to back her grades, and anybody would agree with me that she deserves all she's gotten. So we stay professional, clearly and... about having fun with a kid... number one Ali is hardly a kid, she's a young woman perfectly capable of making her own decisions, she dates me because she wants to, not because she has illusions that it'd improve grades that never even needed improvement, and number two, I would never, ever, get involved with someone to have fun at their expense. Do I have fun with Ali?” Ashlyn sipped from her beer and shrugged. “Obviously, she's my girlfriend and she has a wicked sense of humour. But I'm not using her, Ken. I'm not disrespecting her, and I am not taking advantage in any way. She means a lot to me, I care deeply about her, enough for me to not care about losing my job if I was to be fired for dating her. If she was merely something sexual, I wouldn't date her and risk being accused of whatever, but she's not, she's actually someone special and important to me.”

“Aw, babe, that's so sweet,” Ali stretched a hand over the table to squeeze hers, blushing although grinning, and Ashlyn smiled back, squeezing her hand gently. “You know it's mutual.”

“I know,” Ashlyn winked at her.

Debbie looked sweetly at the couple and Kyle made a gagging sound but Kenneth wasn't entirely convinced.

“If you're so confident then maybe you should tell the Dean,” he commented casually while eating.

“What for Ken?” Debbie frowned. “That guy has no business meddling in our daughter's romantic life.”

“Exactly!” Ali added.

“One of his employees is having sex with our daughter while having a position of superiority over her Debbie, I don't know if you've noticed—,”

“I'm perfectly aware of what our daughter may be doing in private, but that is private, and she's old enough to make such decisions for herself, this isn't high school Ken, these aren't our students,” said Debbie with firmness. “Ali will be twenty-two in a matter of four months, and she's always been responsible and intelligent, she's proven more than trustworthy enough to manage her own life as she pleases, she even pays for her own education and dorms.”

“And Ali is also here,” said Ali, intervening. “And getting a little sick of people discussing her private life. Dad, Ashlyn is only my superior in the classroom and like she clarified, there is no funny business there. As long as we keep things strictly professional there, during her work hours, the Dean has no business making questions, and whatever happens out of the classroom between us is private. I don't even really live with you guys anymore, I don't owe anybody explanations and neither does Ashlyn, who's been nothing but kind, caring and respectful with me, and incredibly patient and polite to answer to your questions too, but that's finished.”

“Fine, fine,” Kenneth raised his hands in peace. “I'm just caring for my daughter.”

“Why don't we all raise our glasses,” Kyle proposed lifting his water, “to Ali buying her way through university!”

“KYLE!”

  
  


  
  



	10. Interspace

**Chapter 10: Interspace.**

**[+18 part]**

Ali sniggered as Ashlyn's lips wandered over her neck, her hands cupping her breasts while she was still inside her girlfriend, who was bent over the desk at her office. Ali moaned and lifted a hand over her shoulder to caress Ashlyn's face, enjoying her attention. It was a hot and humid day of May, and they had been looking for a house for Ashlyn to move to once university finished and her job there finished as well. The scientist had been thinking about going to live to the safe house where her mother was, but eventually decided against it, as she realized she could be endangering her. And now, the last of her emptied inside of Ali, or well, inside the condom, and she was getting an idea.

“Come here,” Ashlyn pulled out and wrapped her arms around her, lifting her up. **[End +18]**

“Where are we going?”

“Bath,” aided by her special skills, Ashlyn filled a hot bath in seconds and sat inside, pulling Ali onto her lap and gently kissing her while things between her legs returned to their usual shape.

“I like this,” Ali smiled, leaning back against her chest. “I really really like you...”

“I really really like you too,” Ashlyn hugged her tightly. “Hey Ali, after your graduation both of us will be kinda homeless, so I was thinking... why don't you move in with me? I mean I know we've only been dating for a few months but we pretty much live together already, we're hardly ever apart.”

“I thought you wanted to keep us secret to protect me from the people that killed your Dad?”

“Yes, but... if we live together, that'd be easier. And I spoken with Abby, she has somewhere we can go Ali, a secret safe spot. It'd be nice for us, it's in the countryside, near my mother and the beach... we'd have our own observatory.”

“Mmm...” Ali meditated it for a moment. They did pretty much live together in Ashlyn's room already, but still it was quite a step. “But I don't have a job, and I don't want to be financially dependant on you...”

“Abby will give you a job, I told you. And the house is of the corporation, comes with the job, neither of us has to pay for it. I'm accepting it with my job, you move in with me and work in the corporation or anywhere you like. And whenever you don't want to be with me anymore, you'll have money to move out and fly solo.”

Ali frowned and turned to scowl at her.

“Why did you say me and not whenever we break up if we do or... whenever you don't want me anymore? Why does it have to be me?”

Ashlyn chuckled, pecking her frown.

“Because there's no fucking way I won't want to be with you, ever.”

The sentence softened Ali, who smiled, swoon.

“Then let's do this. We're the A Team, after all, what can go wrong?”

When early July came, Ali graduated with full honours and having decided she wouldn't, for now, pursue a doctorate, and instead she'd accept Wambach Corp.'s official offer of a paid apprenticeship program, where she would be specializing in history of extraplanetary civilizations, once they started to uncover a few. And so, she'd be living with Ashlyn, who'd be working in the same team as they continued to investigate the Atlantean civilization.

The graduation was a big deal and everybody would be attending, Ashlyn, her friends and family, and of course, the whole class. As the tutor of their class, Ashlyn was charged with the duty of speaking at the ceremony after being introduced by the Dean when he finished his speech. Ashlyn had already seen Ali before they went to the hall in separate ways, as to not draw attention, and so Ali wasn't surprised to see Ashlyn wearing a beautiful suit, casually matching Ali's dress, as Ali's was red and Ashlyn had a crimson tie. Still, she seemed extra sexy standing there all professional, at the stage in front of the microphone.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, it is an honour to stand here before you today as the tutor of this year's promotion in Space Sciences. Students, it is a higher honour to stand before you today not seeing you as individuals who need my guidance, but as remarkable scientists who will change the way we envision the space, and all that's beyond our atmosphere,” Ashlyn added, smiling small at the group of students sitting in the first few rows. “I have devoted my own life to studying the space, the planets, the cosmos, and all there is to know in the vast expanse of our universe, and throughout my career I have come to understand that to do what we do, to devote to a lifetime of study without knowing if you'll ever perceive any reward to it, you have to believe in yourself even when nobody else, sometimes even the scientific community, does. You have to have strong ethics, to seek the truth no matter the pressures to which you may be subjected, and to fight to maintain your independence and not let anybody influence your research. And for this, you need a strong mindset. You don't just need wisdom and intelligence, you need inner strength and a discipline based on hard, honourable work. We're not independent wolves in this field of science. We're people who seek the truth, who make questions, who don't stop until they find the truth, no matter what, but that know we work together, because when it comes to the cosmos, the more eyes are looking out there the better for everybody. We need each other. We will need to seek each other's comfort, guidance, wisdom and aid, because only together we will truly ever see beyond the stars. And through my time with you, I have seen that each and every one of you has what it takes, and I say this sincerely; I am proud of you,” she looked at her students with a nod of approval. “You have taught me way more than I first thought possible, you have enriched my life and my knowledge, and for that I am grateful. But today I must ask you to look at each other. No matter your grades, no matter who struggled more or less or which classes you were better at, look at each other today and remember the faces of the scientists you will hope to work with tomorrow. You're not each other's enemies. You will never be. And you must value each other's future contributions to science, and make sure to remember you come from the same race and fight for the same common goal. Now,” she added, passing a page of her speech and looking ahead, “what can I tell you all about a class of really big smarty-pants?” she joked, making the public laugh. “They are indeed incredibly gifted, intelligent people. They make it an honour to teach them,” she smiled, and winked at Ali, who blushed, “let me tell you I am a very demanding teacher and, teaching astronomy, cosmology and astrophysics, my classes are never, ever, remotely easy. I require hard work, I demand excellency and I don't expect any less, because that's what the world will require of these great scientists. However, not all my students are the same, some are more hard-working, have better memory or for whichever reason, are naturally better at one class or another. And I am really smug to announce this year in this promotion, we have two Cum Laude graduates, one Magna Cum Laude and one Summa Cum Laude, which are in the same order Allen Thomas, Sydney Leroux,” Ali grinned at her friend, who was surprised to hear, and applauded with the rest of the auditorium, “Hector Graham-Jones and,” Ashlyn did her best to dissimulate her smile and looked at Ali, who had no idea what was coming, “Alexandra Krieger.”

“You're the number one!” Sydney elbowed Ali, grinning at her, and other classmates congratulated her and grinned at her, applauding.

“Congratulations to you all,” Ashlyn continued. “You represent excellency at its finest. You represent hard-work, commitment, discipline, and sacrifice in order to achieve only the highest quality of knowledge. You're an inspiration. But remember achieving this honour in University means nothing out there; from now on you will spend every day continuing to prove you deserved this honour, and you will be expected to always be the best. And the Dean and I have agreed that as the first student in the last thirty-five years of history of our university to achieve top qualifications in every single exam of every single course taken throughout her studies, plus managing a position in the university's soccer team, our Suma Cum Laude deserves a special recognition. Therefore please join me in welcoming Miss Alexandra Krieger on stage, first of her promotion to pick up her diploma.”

Ashlyn grinned at the shocked Ali as, encouraged by her classmates and the room's cheering and applauding, she got up to receive her diploma. Usually she'd be between the last ones because of her surname, but not today. Ashlyn, the Dean and some of her other teachers smiled proudly at her, standing together to give her the roll of paper that her diploma and other documents were. Amazed and shocked, Ali shook hands, grinning specially big when Ashlyn's came in the end, and posed for a picture after putting her mortarboard's tassel to the other side to symbolize she had made it, grinning from ear to ear with her diploma.

“Bloody congratulations,” Ashlyn whispered at her ear. “Well effin done.”

“I had extracurricular classes,” Ali teased, making her blush. Before Ali could move out of the stage and back to her seat however, the Dean stopped her and motioned for Ashlyn to continue.

“Just to make Ms Krieger blush a moment longer,” Ashlyn joked to the microphone. “It is my highest honour to announce, in representation of our University's staff, that the Wambach Corporation of Extraterrestrial Research and Technologies has made Ms Krieger the very first student in the history of our university to be offered and granted a full paid apprenticeship job right out of University, so that she can immediately continue her research on the cosmos and its secrets, and contribute with her knowledge and hard work to science. My most sincere congratulations, Ms Krieger.”

Ashlyn grinned at Ali, and the student blushed, accepting the extra round of applause, even though she only had eyes for Ashlyn.

An hour later, Ali was excitedly chatting with her family and best friends outside the University Campus' Auditorium, enjoying the thrill of adrenaline from her finished studies, when Ashlyn caught up with them, beaming as she put an arm around Ali's waist and surprised her from behind, kissing her cheek.

“Hi there, you took your sweet time!” Ali moved to get a better look, grinning at her.

“The Dean entertained me chatting, as I'm also leaving,” Ashlyn shrugged. “Now, what do you guys say if we head over to the cars? I've got restaurant reservations.”

“Awesome! Coming Syd?” Ali asked her best friend.

“No, I'm celebrating with Dom and the fam. But I'll see you soon!” the two friends hugged tight and Sydney also hugged Ashlyn before running to her boyfriend and parents.

They were just strolling down the parking lot when they heard a sudden commotion behind them and turned, hearing screaming, to face the multitude they had left behind, in the Campus' square, just as a car blew up next to the square. People started running in all directions, screaming, and Ashlyn narrowed her eyes, looking for the threat, until she saw them; about twelve weirdly-dressed creatures, humanoid-looking but with lizard faces, claws, and laser guns, wearing war-like clothes and high boots, and shooting left and right with laser, that made cars and buildings burst into flames as chaos erupted.

“What the hell is that?” Debbie asked, paralysed in fear.

Ashlyn's eyes widened and she turned to the group; Ali and her brother, Debbie, her husband, Kenneth, and Kyle, all of whom looked shocked and terrified.

“You have to go!” Ashlyn pulled them out of their trance. “Go!”

“I'm not going without you!” Ali argued.

“Ali, I can face them, you know what I am,” said Ashlyn, even though the others didn't understand. “I'll be okay. You need to go somewhere safe.”

“Where?” Kyle inquired. “Look at that! How are we going to get anywhere safe? What's going on?”

Ashlyn looked back at the monsters and the chaos, feeling her heart beating quickly with adrenaline, and gave her car keys to Ali.

“Ali, take my car, it's not a normal car, it should keep you safe. Take them as far from here as you can, to the Wambach Corp. labs, you should be safe there. Wait for me there, we'll meet again.”

“But Ash—,”

“There's no more time,” Ashlyn kissed her firmly. “I love you. Stay safe. Please.”

Without another word, she ran to the action, already creating out of nowhere a cage of ice around the aliens.

“Come on Ali, we're going!” Ken hurried her, putting an arm around her.

“But Ashlyn!”

“You heard her, and she's clearly...” Ken looked at the professor, who had just thrown one alien so hard against a tree, that the tree had broken. “Not human. Let's go now.”

  
  


  
  



	11. Wambach Corp.

**Chapter 11: Wambach Corp.**

Just as the group ran into the parking lot, a helicopter with the Wambach Corp. logo appeared out of the blue, flying just over the cars parked. The door opened and Abby appeared, throwing a rope ladder down and offering them a hand.

“Here! Come!”

“It's Abby Wambach!” Ali pointed out. “Let's go! She's Ashlyn's friend!”

The group ascended the ladder with Abby's help, and soon, they were inside the helicopter.

“I'm Glennon, Abby's wife,” a beautiful blonde told them as they flopped inside the comfortable helicopter's sofa seats. “Nice to meet you.” She grinned.

“What is going on?” Kenneth demanded to know. “What are they? Who are you?”

“They are snatchers from the Galaxy of Zeot 11,” Abby explained. “Marty, get us out of here!” she yelled towards the pilot. “I'm not sure what they're doing here, but our people will handle it. My duty is to get you somewhere safe.”

“Why us? What about the others?” Debbie's husband asked. “Most of them were kids!”

“Ashlyn and Pinoe are on it, and so is our Alpha Brigade and the SWAT, of course. The Government will be sending the military. I would normally join in the fun, but family goes first and Ashlyn made a very specific request that I wouldn't trust your safety to anybody but myself.”

“What about her, how's she going to join us? She gave me her car keys,” Ali inquired, anguished, looking into the incredibly blue eyes of Abby, who had short platinum hair brushed back and very modern clothes.

“Trust me Ali, Ashlyn knows her way,” Abby smiled warmly, “I've yet to see her struggle to come out of a tricky situation.”

Ali nodded, but frowned.

“There isn't a Zeot 11 Galaxy...”

“Sweetie, there's so much you don't know... our Corporation has the truth, even the stuff the Governments are not releasing because people would go berserk,” Glennon explained sitting with them. “You've seen what happened when we changed millennium, or every time someone believes an apocalyptic prophecy, everybody freaks out, goes into panic, they empty supermarkets and lock themselves into bunkers.”

“Or commit suicide in masses,” Abby chimed in. “If they knew the delicate information we manage, humanity wouldn't survive, Ali. They wouldn't be able to sleep at night, they would call alien the slightest thing they saw in the sky, freak out, panic, and kill somebody.”

“So those out there...” Debbie asked cautiously. “Were aliens?”

“Yes.”

“And why are they here? Do they want to invade Earth?” Debbie's husband added.

“I'm not sure. There are wars between extraterrestrial civilizations day and night, and they've always visited us. The Atlanteans, the Gods of Egypt, the Gods of the Ancient Greek... all aliens. Even our God,” Abby explained.

“Are you saying Jesus is an alien?!” Kenneth flipped.

“Dad come on a guy who transforms water in wine? Come on...” Ali rolled eyes. She was now excited with the information, instead of terrifying. “So they usually come in peace and even to help. What are these doing?”

“We've been observing extraterrestrial activity for a while, it's getting so weird the Government created a new Space Force in the Air Force to combat aliens, they'll be coming now for their first public mission. It's like some power has risen, threatening other civilizations and making them act up, provoke wars of power... it's possible that's what brings these guys here, that maybe they're trying to gather more power. It's very complex, we're investigating,” Abby explained.

“But I thought you guys were science nerds, that you worked on building technologies for space stuff, and did research...” Kyle commented. “How come you guys have... what did you say, brigades? To fight aliens?”

“We've been preparing for a fight since we started observing the disturbances out there, an increment of UFO sightings, and good aliens who help us and warned us something might be coming, for months now,” explained Abby. “Ashlyn and Pinoe were warned to be on the lookout.”

“Ash didn't tell me anything,” Ali murmured.

“And she did well,” Abby smiled gently at her. “I know there's a lot she's hidden from you and it might feel like betrayal, but she was merely protecting you. I advised her to shut up and wait until you came to work for us, when I'd tell you everything. Welcome, by the way.”

“And what's Ashlyn?” Debbie inquired then. “She made giant ice walls, and she threw one of those monsters so hard a tree split in two...”

“Ashlyn is the only survivor, as far as we know, of an alien civilization of Atlantis,” Abby explained. “We believe the Atlantis had a population here, as Plato wrote, but that they actually belong in another planet which orbits around the Proxima Centauri red dwarf star. When the civilization collapsed for unknown reasons, Ashlyn's biological family sent her here, as a newborn, to protect her and prevent their race from extinction.”

“You knew all of this?” Kenneth asked Ali, scowling.

“Of course,” Ali nodded. “She saved my life once, a robber assaulted us... she can manage water as she pleases, and has super strength, incredible acrobatics... she's really good.”

“You've seen what these aliens are capable of yet you—,”

“Dad stop right there. Ashlyn is one of the good ones and she's not the only one, is she?” Ali turned to Abby. “There are other aliens helping out, right? From other places?”

“Yes. And they all are part of Wambach Corp. Do you see know why what we do is so special?”

Ali nodded slowly, still impressed and starting to be a bit overwhelmed with information.

“So Ashlyn's an alien? Cool,” Kyle elbowed her playfully. “Well done sis.”

“And not only does she come from one of the most advanced civilizations of our universe, but she was adopted here in Earth by two of the brightest scientists of our time, Mike and Tammye Harris,” added Glennon. “She was doomed to be great. Mike and Tammye's only biological child Christopher, who was a little older, was tremendous, wasn't he babe?”

“Bravest, smartest bastard of our generation,” Abby nodded with a sad smile. “Unfortunately something happened while he was up there on a mission, he was an astronaut, and one of the best for that matter. He never returned. Last summer, Mike was killed by the Government's people for finding out more than he should have about his son's death, presumably. Ever since, we've been protecting Ashlyn's relatives from both sides, including Tammye, who you'll meet... our families are close as thieves, we've always worked together. Tammye is in charge of our cosmology team and Jimbo, her brother and a neurosurgeon, directs our medical alien programme with an actual alien healer.”

“And we've arrived,” Abby announced looking through the window.

They turned in their seats to see the helicopter land in a heliport on top of what looked like a large building in the middle of a dense, thick forest of tall pines. Ali had no idea where exactly they were, her plans had been to find the place in Ashlyn's car's GPS and follow the indications, but it seemed like an island in the middle of nowhere.

“Welcome to Wambach Corp., about to be re-baptized Wambach & Harris Corp., actually,” Abby grinned, opening the helicopter door for her. “Please follow me.”

The group followed Abby, with Glennon staying behind to ensure nobody was left behind, through a grey, large rooftop and down a spiral stairwell. Guards opened doors for them and at last, they were in a labyrinth of corridors until they entered a large, round room with huge windows that led to the ocean, as if they were on a cliff. There were sofas, a kitchen, tables...

“Ali, you may want to leave that stuff around,” Abby commented pointing to Ali's graduation stuff. “This is yours and Ashlyn's work studio, so nobody else will come in.”

“Our work studio?”

“Yes, you know... your brainstorming room. Don't you have that in Uni?”

Ali's eyes widened, shocked, as she put down her diploma, hat and gown.

“No.”

“Oh. Well you will like it here then. Let's go to my office, we'll wait for the girls there to give us a report. Once we're sure everything is safe, you guys can go home, we'll take you.”

“Thanks Abby,” Debbie said, and Abby smiled, handing her a card.

“Anything you need, Ashlyn's friends are my friends.”

The building looked like a modern, expensive, huge University, full of inside patios with trees, grass fields and fountains, colourful rooms full of sofas and tables for people to sit and work, scientists walking everywhere, some of them looking odd enough for Ali to identify them as aliens, and rooms and rooms full of telescopes, microscopes, and all sorts of scientific equipment, most of the rooms having windows that led to the corridors for them to see them. They also passed a large library, and at last walked down some stairs and arrived into a large, luxurious office with a big fish tank. A small dog ran to met them.

“Hi cutie, missed you,” Abby kissed the bulldog and let it out of the room. “Please, make yourselves at home.” Abby indicated.

The group spread between the corner sofa, staring at the fish, or looking through the window, and someone with a purple blouse and, Ali noticed, six fingers per hand, brought them a tray of snacks and drinks with a smile.

“Thanks Vera,” Glennon thanked, and the group sat to have a drink. Abby turned a large TV on and they watched the scenes of chaos they had gone away from, discovering peace had been re-established and everything was back to normal. After a few minutes, a young man with a grey jumper and bright red hair barged in.

“Abby! Our people are back, they're detained some aliens, they brought them to the cellars... but some have been wounded and are in the clinic. They'll be all right, all superficial wounds, except for one. It's Ashlyn. The poisonous claws almost ripped off her right arm.”

“Ash...” Ali stood up, panicking, and Abby stood as well, looking serious.

“Get Tammye and Jimbo, and give her XY-0, it's our most powerful antidote. Take us to her.”

So the group was on their feet again and Ali rushed at the head of it with Abby. They rushed through a terrace and up the stairs and arrived to a large oval room full of beds, many of them occupied with people that didn't look too bad and were being attended by who Ali supposed were medical staff. But her eyes were glued to a whimpering figure lying on another bed. Pinoe was covering the issue, comforting Ashlyn, but when Ali was close enough to see the problem, her stomach churned. Ashlyn's right shoulder was split open, with blood pouring out along with some dark green, bubbly liquid. Her shirt had been ripped open to expose the wound, and Ashlyn was ashen, her lips grey and her eyes half closed as she trembled, whimpered, and made choking sounds.

“Ashlyn!” Ali ran to them, sitting on the very edge of the bed to lean closer, cupping her ice cold face. “Ashlyn baby, it's okay, you're in good hands.”

“She's not healing herself,” Pinoe informed Abby. She had a bruised eye and an ugly cut in one arm, but she seemed pretty fine. “The poison is too bad, it's going to kill her.”

“Here,” a woman Ali recognized as Megan Rapinoe 'Pinoe's girlfriend, Sue, appeared wearing a white lab coat and gloves, and holding a large syringe that without further delay, nailed on Ashlyn's neck, pushing some blue liquid inside. “This should keep the poison at bay, but we need to save her arm.”

“Proxima Centauri star light and salt water from the Atlantic, now!” they turned to see a large man hurrying in with a woman, both of whom wore white lab coats too. Ali identified them from pictures Ashlyn had shown her, as her mother and Uncle Jimbo, who had spoken. “Let me see,” he gently pushed Pinoe aside to examine the wound up close, “yeah, these bastards' poison is highly toxic, nobody touches it, okay? It would kill a human being.”

Meanwhile others brought in a large lamp that was turned on over Ashlyn's bed, providing a warm, orange light, and some nurses came in with what looked like a shallow human-size rectangular recipient of water. Between them, Jimbo, Abby, Sue and Rapinoe, Ashlyn was moved onto the recipient, that was placed on the bed, and with a jar they poured more water until her injured shoulder was covered. Her face was out of the water and so Ali sat by her bedside, caressing her face and whispering comforting words, holding her hand of her other arm. Slowly, Ashlyn started to breathe better and acquire more colour, and her eyes opened weakly to look at Ali.

“Hi,” Ali grinned at her, full of worry. “You scared me. How do you feel baby?”

“Too human for my liking,” Ashlyn joked with a hoarse whisper, making her chuckle. “You OK?”

“I'm fine,” Ali kissed her forehead. “Rest, don't worry about a thing,” Ashlyn nodded, closing her eyes, and Ali turned to Pinoe. “How's everyone? Sydney, the girls?”

“They're all good, many had already left and Sydney will be here later to help out, once her family's calmed down. A few civilians died, but no one we knew personally, and no more than two or three, which is a miracle.”

“Did you get all of the aliens?” asked Abby, frowning in concern.

“Two died, we arrested five, the government took the rest. But... they were looking for Ashlyn,” Rapinoe commented, standing aside and letting Tammye sit by her daughter and examine the wound.

“What do you mean?” Tammye asked, fully scowling as she turned to her.

“Well before Ashlyn appeared, they seemed to be looking around, you know, like people look when they're trying to find their phone,” Rapinoe explained. “Then Ashlyn appeared and they all went for her at once. Ashlyn noticed and tried to keep them from hurting anybody while protecting herself, and we tried to protect her too, but one of them really got to her. I killed that one.”

“We should let her rest,” Abby said, glancing at Ashlyn. “I'll be at the observatory, I'll see what I can find out. Good job everyone!” She kissed her wife briefly and turned, marching out of the room.

“I'm staying,” said Ali, holding Ashlyn's hand and looking at her family. “But you guys should go home if it's safe now.”

“It is, I can take you,” Pinoe offered.

“Coach... you're an alien too?” Debbie asked, surprised, and Pinoe laughed, shaking her head.

“Logical assumption, but no. I fell into radioactive water as a child, Ashlyn rescued me. It was because of her intervention that, instead of dying, I just acquired some... extra resistance. Can I take you home?”

“Maybe I should stay,” Kyle said, unsure. “Ali, I don't want to leave you alone...”

“I'm not alone, I'll be fine,” Ali smiled confident at him. “Best we all can do is continue to our lives as normal as possible. I'll stay here and try to help figure out what's going on, put my brain to good service, and you guys do your life, we'll stay in touch and I'll visit. We're not far, aren't we? I thought this place was in Orlando too?”

“We're in an artificial secret island in the Atlantic Coast, very close to the Space Coast of Florida. We have created unimaginable modern technologies that keep our building invisible to ships and planes,” Glennon explained more thoroughly, “and that give us fast, secret ways of communicating with the peninsula. Only those we authorize in our system, which now includes you all, can reach the island, anybody else could navigate through it without noticing us.”

“That's magic,” Debbie's husband murmured, and Glennon chuckled.

“It can feel that way. After all, our work has gotten us to be quite futuristic, being several steps ahead. But your homes are safe, and we ensure the safety of all of our workers' families and close friends, which includes you. We have security agents all around the States ensuring your safety. You won't see them unless chaos comes through, but they'll be there. And whenever you wish to come, you can just give us a call and we'll send a chauffeur. This is not a prison; our workers have complete freedom of movement in and out, and you are always welcome to come, and even stay in our facilities for as long as you want. Many of our employees don't even really work here in the building, but out there, like Pinoe in the University.”

“Our duties change depending on the circumstances,” Pinoe shrugged. “I'll be working here full time now though, coaching is great but... I miss the action.”

“How long have you and Ashlyn been working for the Corporation?” Ali asked, turning to her former coach.

“Ugh, such a long time... we've usually been independent researchers selling our discoveries and research to the corporation, but we've always been involved in some way. Back when we were marines, we used to do some combat with hostile aliens. It's a long story,” Pinoe waved it off.

Ashlyn groaned in her sleep and Tammye got up.

“We really do need to leave her some peace and quiet. I'll get some healing cream...” Tammye walked out through another door.

“Right, we should go then,” Debbie looked insecure at Ali. “You sure you'll be okay baby?”

“Sure. I'll call, stay safe,” Ali got up to hug her family. “Love you guys.”

“We love you too,” Kenneth kissed her forehead and glanced at Ashlyn. “Take care of her for us, will you?” Ali side smiled.

“So you approve?” Ken puffed and shrugged.

“The alien almost lost an arm to protect some young humans, I'll cut her some slack,” he joked, making her snigger.

“Come on, let's go,” Kyle kissed Ali's cheek. “Tell her we love her too. And be safe.”

“Will do.”

“I'll go with you guys,” Sue said, accompanying Pinoe and the family outside.

“I'll get you a map of the building, so you can move around,” Glennon murmured, squeezing Ali's shoulder. “Anything else you need?”

“I'm fine, thanks,” Ali smiled appreciatively and turned back to Ashlyn, sighing as she caressed her pale cheek. She couldn't wait to kick some alien ass for touching her girlfriend.

  
  


  
  



	12. By your side

**Chapter 12: By your side.**

When Ashlyn's hazel eyes opened, white light was coming through the windows and it took her a moment to get used to it and recognize her surroundings. She was in a big, comfortable bed, and she immediately smiled seeing Ali nuzzled under the duvet next to her. She could only partially remember having woken the day before in the Corporation's clinic and Ali helping her walk to their apartment in the residential side of the building, and now she was in her underwear, and she felt stronger and healthier than the day before.

Tentatively, she looked down and saw her wounded shoulder, with now a pink, raw, new cape of skin covering what before was wide open. She tried moving it a little to see how it felt, and rotated her arm, groaning a bit as sharp pain cursed through. Looking around, Ashlyn saw a shoulder bandage sleeve on a white, modern-looking bedside table, next to a sling, and stretched to put in on, carefully adjusting it and then wrapping the strap across her chest. This would protect the raw skin and keep her from moving too much. Still, she got up very carefully and, after finding a shirt in a closet, she put on the sling too, stretching her fingers and checking out how her arm felt.

“Feeling better?” Ashlyn turned hearing her girlfriend's voice and grinned softly, seeing her sitting up in bed looking lovingly at her.

“Yeah... Thank you,” the older woman walked over to kiss her. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” Ali gave her a toothy grin, cupping her face and kissing her. “By the way, you didn't give me a chance to say... I love you too. So much.”

Ashlyn grinned so big Ali sniggered, watching her.

“You don't know how happy that makes me,” Ashlyn pecked her lips. “I've never been in love before.”

“Me neither. To think that we had to cross interplanetary distances...”

“I'd do it all over again,” Ashlyn kissed her again, this time more intensely. “How is your family? Did everyone make it home safely? Your friends?”

“Everyone is okay, safe. Sydney arrived last night to work with us, she's already received all the explanations she needed. Listen, Ashlyn, these people who are trying to kill you...”

“It's likely they're the ones who destroyed my world, they found out they didn't kill us all, came to finish what they started. They're looking for me, and won't stop until they find me.”

“What can we do? You can't let them get to you...”

“I know. I... we'll come up with something, okay? Let's not worry about that just yet,” she cupped her face with one hand, kissing her forehead. “Get dressed, I'll take you to breakfast, uh?”

“Sounds good.”

They dressed quickly, and walked out of the apartment with arms around each other. Ashlyn wrapped hers around Ali's shoulders and smiled down at her as they walked, squeezing her closer now and then, feeling lucky and chirpy. Her hair had been put into a tight bun, while Ali had hers back in a braid, and they were wearing their own clothes, that had been brought to the apartment. They walked together to the cafeteria terrace and got some breakfast take-out before Ashlyn guided Ali through the labyrinth of corridors and outside to the forest.

“Is it safe here?” Ali inquired, fastening her coat before grabbing Ashlyn's hand in hers, looking around between the tall trees while their boots made crunching sounds stepping on fallen leaves.

“Well you get the wild animals, but yeah,” Ashlyn squeezed her hand reassuringly. “We're safe. I wouldn't let anything happen to you.”

“Me neither,” said Ali. “I actually owe those bastards a broken nose in compensation for what they did to you.”

Ashlyn laughed at her feisty nature, and the forest ended, putting them face to face with a clear, in a cliff covered with flowers. They had views of the whole Atlantic Ocean, and could hear the waves crashing against the cliff. It was so beautiful, Ali lost her words for a moment.

“Good enough for date... hundredth?” Ashlyn inquired.

“Absolutely,” Ali chuckled at her., feeling blessed. “Let's eat, I'm starved.”

They picked a place on the grass and opened their boxes of pancakes, waffles and biscuits, starting to eat while staring at the views and each other. Eventually, Ali blushed.

“What?” Ashlyn teased.

“The way you're looking at me.”

“Which way?” Ashlyn played innocent.

“You know,” Ali blushed harder. “Like you've seen me naked.”

“I have seen you naked,” Ashlyn said rather smugly, and Ali giggled, blushing more. “You're the cutest.”

“You scared the crap out of me yesterday, you know?” Ali commented. “Is your shoulder really feeling all right?”

“It really didn't, but now is better, yes...” Ashlyn sighed. “I guess it's odd. I've never gotten so badly hurt before. It's the first time it's so bad I can't heal myself. And when he sank his claws, it was excruciating and... it brought me somewhere else. For a moment, I felt like I saw through his eyes.”

“You saw yourself being hurt by... yourself?”

“No... it was as if I was him, but seeing a different attack... somewhere else. I wonder if I saw him attacking my people of Atlantis.”

“You think that's possible?”

“I think now everything's possible,” Ashlyn looked thoughtful. “I really thought I'd lose my arm. If it wasn't for Pinoe...”

“You're safe now,” Ali squeezed her hand. “Here, you're safe. Right? They can't get here?”

“God knows. In theory...” Ashlyn looked around. “Would you mind if we go back? I don't know if it's because yesterday was genuinely scary or because I'm feeling wounded and vulnerable, but I'm not too comfortable being this exposed for long at the moment.”

“It's okay. We came, we enjoyed, we go back,” Ali smiled, picking everything up and taking her hand, that she brought to her lips. “As long as we're together, I don't care where.”

The couple strolled back inside and after a quick stop in their apartment to leave the leftovers and coats, walked to the observatory, and entered a large room full of screens of different views from different telescopes, with computers that controlled them and a glass high ceiling.

“Hi,” Abby came to them, “how're you feeling mate?” she looked at Ashlyn.

“I've been worse,” her lip curved upwards briefly. “What have you got?”

“The snatchers were from the planet Z11Eco,” Abby walked them towards the space map they had in 3D in the form of a hologram in colour and pointed at a microscopic point near a sun. “Zeot 11's Galaxy is actually very small, not bigger than the Earth, but very powerful in resources, they have materials we haven't even known yet, far more powerful than ours. Hence, they've been able to evolve technologically a hundred times faster than us, and for the past few hundred thousand years they've been using their technology to expand and conquer other planets to grow.”

“So the Galaxy organizes as a country?” Ali inquired. “Like, all the planets team up for one common goal?”

“Exactly,” Ashlyn affirmed. “The snatchers are in the smallest and poorest planet, which is about the size of Greenland. The richer, bigger planets put the technology and government. And they have a space station in the middle, coordinating all activities. Abby's parents discovered their civilization by chance a couple decades ago.”

“We've been tracking them ever since, because they're merciless. They rip people apart, don't just kill them, as they tried to do with Ashlyn,” Ali eyed Ashlyn, who seemed to pale with the mere thought. “And they go against powerful civilizations and still ruin them. That's been our latest suspicion, that they did that to the Atlanteans and for some reason, don't want to leave a single one behind.”

“So they won't stop until they kill me,” Ashlyn murmured.

“Well we have to stop them. They've made fifteen alien civilizations disappear from the map, Ash,” Abby pointed out. “We can't just let them continue.”

“But how do they know Ash was left behind?” Ali questioned. “There's no way... she was just a newborn. How do they even know is the same person as this adult woman?”

“That's a good question,” Abby sighed, shrugging. “We don't know yet.”

Ashlyn walked thoughtful to the screens, observing the stars, planets and nebulas the telescopes were watching over.

“I need to go to Proxima Centauri b,” she said at last.

“The spaceship is not ready yet,” Abby said. “And you're not strong enough yet, you need to recover.”

“How long will it take to be ready?” Ashlyn inquired.

“Well, you know how this goes, for all the world knows humanity has never reached another planet. Only we could reach Mars and Venus, and because they're the closest to us. To get to Proxima Centauri b... Ash, it could take decades before such technology is ready, and then God knows how long the trip would be. Our shortest trips last a year at the moment, at light's speed.”

“We don't have so long,” said Ali.

“Yeah, we don't. But there's another option... Abby, you said we had the exact location of the island of Atlantis last Christmas, didn't you?”

“Thanks to your discoveries with Ali, yes,” Abby nodded, and went to a big tactile screen. She touched it several times and a world map appeared, with a rectangle in the middle of the Atlantic. “1.376,68 Km west from the La Gomera island, in Spain. But it's at 13000 metres of depth Ashlyn, no submarine has ever gotten that deep. It's complete darkness, and the pressure would automatically kill a human being.”

“But I'm not a human being,” argued Ashlyn.

“I still highly doubt you can resist that pressure Ash, it'd crush you to death!”

“Wait, what are you intending?” Ali frowned, turning to Ashlyn, who puffed, shaking her head.

“I need to go home. To my actual home, Ali. If I could do it I might be able to get us their technologies to combat this threat, and I might be able to evolve to my full Atlantean capacities, be stronger, more capable of combating these bastards. Because if we can't fight them, they will keep coming, and it won't be twelve. It'll be twelve million, not snatchers, actual alien soldiers. They'll exterminate the human race babe.”

“What do you expect to achieve going there?” Abby asked as they walked to the privacy of her office. “You already have capacities beyond any human.”

“I'm not strong enough! I'm not fantastic enough!” Ashlyn said full of frustration. “According to my research with Ali, according to the ancient books you could gather for us, Atlanteans were on average between 1.80 and 2.50 metres high, were broad, fit, strong, incredible swimmers, they were pretty much dolphins out there, they were athletic, they were the gods of the ocean pretty much—,”

“And despite all of that, our investigations concluded the people from Zeot 11 ripped them to pieces, literally,” Abby reminded her firmly. “You can't face them they'll do the same to you.”

“What if we could protect her?” Ali inquired.

“What?” Abby turned to her.

“Abby you have here technologies the world can only dream of. Can't you make her some sort of suit that empowers her? Something like... like Spiderman's suit!”

“I'm confused,” Ashlyn murmured.

“No I get it,” Abby nodded. “Something that would strengthen the natural abilities and capacities you have, and grow them. Something like... it could be some sort of diving suit extra elastic while light, stronger than iron so their claws can't penetrate, maybe something that could provide extra oxygen, keep body temperature...”

“Something out of 'The Incredibles', come on!” Ali encouraged excitedly. Ashlyn looked between Abby and Ali, confused.

“I understand you,” Ashlyn pointed at the oldest woman. “But not you babe.”

Ali grinned, coming over to kiss her.

“Oh, believe me. You will.”


	13. Aquaman? Better

**Chapter 13: Aquaman? Better.**

While Abby's team worked on creating the armour of a hero, Ashlyn focused on accelerating her recovery and improving her swimming abilities. Every day, while Ali worked with Abby, she would spend eight hours diving in the ocean, trying to get deeper each time, having to stop when she was out of oxygen or the pressure became too much. She swam with sharks, killer whales, dolphins... but none attacked her. And two weeks later, she had reached a depth of one metre, only.

She coughed as her lungs screamed for air, climbing onto the small pier near the Wambach & Harris Corp. buildings, shaking from the effort after having conquered the thousand metre.

“You can't keep extenuating yourself like that,” Ali chastised, surprising her as she was there, covering her with a towel. “Your shoulder still needs healing.”

It was true her shoulder was healing remarkably slow, and was still scarred, and it was hurting again. Ashlyn took off her diving glasses, zipped down her diving suit and wrapped the towel around her, looking at Ali.

“I made it a thousand metres. If I can make it to five thousand, maybe Abby can lower me down half the way and I'll swim the other half. All I have to figure out is how to stand the pressure below that but we have a machine that can simulate it for me to train—,”

“Keep this up and you'll kill yourself, Ashlyn,” Ali said gently but worried. “Making it a thousand metres is remarkable, it's more than any human has, but babe, you can't continue.”

“I don't have a choice. Those monsters killed my family Ali. Not just killed them; they snapped them in pieces. How would you feel if you knew your parents, your brother had been ripped apart alive?! If you had felt just a fraction of that pain, if you could imagine the agony—!”

“I know,” Ali cut her before she could get too upset. “I know you have to, I know you're feeling like shit. I hear you at night.”

“Hear me?”

“You toss and talk in your sleep. Since the attack.”

“Oh,” Ashlyn blushed, embarrassed. “I'm sorry.”

“It's okay. Not your fault,” Ali wrapped her arms around her, tight. “Let me take care of you, someone has to.”

Ashlyn sighed against her neck, hugging her back.

“Why are you here anyway?” she asked at last, as they parted.

“Abby has finished your suit. She needs you to try it on.”

“Cool! Let's go.”

Ashlyn changed into her clothes, in a bag on the pier, and took Ali's hand, guiding her back to the labs. Now Ali was also wearing a white lab coat with a tight bun, and Ashlyn couldn't get over how sexy she was.

“You know,” Ashlyn whispered as they entered the corporation building. “Keep it up and you'll give me a hard-on.”

Ali giggled, blushing.

“As if I could avoid it.”

“True,” Ashlyn kissed her cheek. “I love you.”

“This Thursday's my birthday,” Ali announced suddenly. “Could we take a break from this whole madness and just... have a day to ourselves? Maybe go somewhere nice for lunch or something? I'm just... now that we live here, it's like I can never disconnect and I'm feeling the need for some us time.”

Ashlyn nodded slowly.

“Sure,” Ashlyn pecked her lips. “I'll sort something for you. It'll be a surprise.”

“Ready?” Abby saw them and walked to them. “You're going to love this.”

Ashlyn and Ali followed her to the simulator chambers they kept in the basements. There, they had a large round room with glass walls and adjacent to it, a smaller room with screens, computer, and everything necessary to monitor the other room, which was the simulator room, and they could watch it through large windows.

Abby had the computers on and guided them to the big screens, where they saw the photographs of Ashlyn's new suit. It was similar to a diving suit, except that it included tall and tight military-like boots and gloves, plus the hoodie part, a special mask that covered from the nose down, and the only other uncovered part of the body, which were the eyes, was covered with big and grey diving glasses attached to the suit.

Ashlyn and Ali whistled in admiration, because it just looked so cool. It was all in tones of dark grey and black, marked the silhouette, and the front of the torso part, aside from a wide vertical stripe from the top of the head to the back of the neck were neon dark purple, blueish, with a golden Atlantean crest in the middle of the chest. The whole suit seemed to be covered by metallic fish scales, forming some sort of shield like crocodiles, but it looked light and manageable.

“You look like a Power Ranger but way cooler,” Ali grinned. Seeing Ashlyn's confused face, she rolled eyes. “Seriously? Not even the Power Rangers?”

“This hydrodynamic suit is by far my best creation,” Abby explained proudly. “Inside, it's soft and warm, outside, it has a soft and slimy texture like a fish, but it's made of a special metal found in Venus which is the toughest ever known. It wouldn't break even if a meteor fell on it, at most it would... scratch. It can resist underwater pressure up to fifteen kilometres of depth, temperatures ranging from -50 to 2000ºC, while maintaining an inside constant temperature of thirty-five degrees and its own ventilation and cleaning system, which allows you to pee yourself with it on, and it'll immediately clean itself and you. Out of the water it allows normal entrance of oxygen, purifying it as it goes through the mask's filters, but in the water you can, when needed, activate an oxygenation system that will give you one hour of steady oxygen flow, as long as you breathe normally, two hours if you breathe very, very calmly. Not more.”

“I can withstand two hours with my own lung, so that gives me three, maybe four hours. Should be enough,” Ashlyn grinned, proudly.

“Also, watch this,” Abby turned on the 3D pictures and pushed a button that made a large fin appear from the top of the head, down the spine, until the end of it. “Will help you swim. Upon contact with water, the suit will transform. The gloves will become webbed and get fins on the forearm parts, and the boots will become plain and webbed, like normal swimming flippers, except that they'll both maintain the properties I added. First off, the gloves are fully tactile, adjust to your hand, and I've also modified them so you can have a good grip and climb if you have to, even over sliding textures such as those covered in moss or seaweed. Second, the boots have a similar sole to give you a good grip, and they'll both will keep your body temperature as well. The entire suit will stay waterproof too, and the glasses will not become misty. If you need light underwater, the suit is intelligent, you just ask it to do whatever you need like, lantern, and...” she pushed other buttons and the forehead of the suit illuminated strongly. “It has enough power for you to see in dense darkness up to one kilometre ahead of you. And it charges with the sun while you're outside and also with movement, as long as you're moving it won't turn off, and when you stop moving it'll continue for about one hour depending on how much sun it had. And all the fins cut like hell, in case you need to protect yourself.”

“Impressive, Abby. Truly. And you can't seriously create a submarine this cool?” Ashlyn teased.

“Shut up Harris,” Abby snorted a laugh, shaking her head. “Also, if you feel thirsty, just tell the suit you're thirsty and it'll allow for water to enter your mouth as long as you're underwater, passing it through filters that will make it drinkable and good.”

“You thought of everything,” Ali said proudly.

“Hopefully I did. The claws shouldn't be able to penetrate, and it has kneeguards and elbowguards for extra protection...”

“Will it allow me to move easily, swim?”

“Yes. And it only weights ten grams,” Abby added.

“Awesome. What about underwater pressure?”

“Well the suit won't break and it should add some extra protection but still... I can't guarantee it's infallible and certainly, at thirteen kilometres under water, you'll feel the pressure. It may not crush you to death, but it could be enough to make you so anxious you breathe fast and run out of oxygen.”

“What about hearing?” Ali asked. “Will she be able to hear?”

“Oh yeah, no problem. And it should protect her eardrums from popping or whatever. And I included a micro microphone inside the mask that should let you communicate straight with the lab, plus micro headphones so you can hear us from the lab, and a micro camera between the eyes so we can see what you see. It will allow your powers to work through the suit and also, remember, if you need to activate or deactivate any function—,”

“I tell it to. When can I try it on?”

“Now,” Abby opened a drawer and pulled out what seemed like the chest crest of the suit, the small metallic piece with the Atlantean symbol. “Press it against your sternum and say 'Atlantean ready' or 'Atlantean finish' to get it on or off, but please get in your underwear so it works better.”

“Couldn't just be suit on?”

“Couldn't be anything you could say accidentally. Imagine you take it off by accident while an alien's got you gripped by the neck,” Abby reasoned.

“It's logical,” admitted Ali. “Come on, try it.”

“Right,” Ashlyn removed her clothes and shoes and did as Abby said. Immediately, the suit grew covering her body, and she could see crystal clear through the glasses that appeared before her eyes. “Cool!”

“Sexy,” Ali winked, teasing.

“Yeah now get your cute little butt in the simulator,” said Abby, pointing to it.

Ashlyn walked to the adjacent room, and could hear Abby through the room's audio system, with Abby speaking through a microphone in the computer room.

“I'm all ready!” Ashlyn said full of excitement. “Bring it on!”

“Adding water,” Abby indicated. The room Ashlyn was in started to fill with water rather quickly, but Ashlyn didn't feel it being cold or hot, she remained at a good temperature.

“Diving gear on,” Ashlyn petitioned, and her suit transformed at her will. She tried swimming as soon as she could, and was surprised by how good it felt. “Woah Abby! I feel like a fish here!”

“I'm so jealous...” Ali murmured under her breath, and Abby smiled at her.

“Now I'm going to start raising the pressure. When you start feeling anything, tell me, don't wait! I need to know exactly how much the suit can stand, and if I need to modify anything.”

“Gotcha!”

“Is she that good of a swimmer, or it's the suit?” Ali asked, watching her girlfriend diving like a dolphin in the aquarium, doing flips and all.

“The suit doesn't add natural body strength and athleticism. She's that good on her own.”

“Woah.”

“Turned on?” Abby teased jokingly.

“A little,” Ali giggled, blushing.

The computer indicated the numbers of pressure raising.

“I start to feel heavy,” Ashlyn said at one point. “Like I sink naturally.”

“The pressure is at three kilometres in right now. Still comfortable?”

“Yes, keep going.”

“Six kilometres!” Abby said into the microphone, then turned to Ali. “See how fast she sinks? She's going to need to get very fit to swim back up fast enough before she looses all oxygen.”

“How much time will she need?”

“It should take her about one hour to descend, if she swims as fast as she can, maybe less once the pressure gets really bad and drags her down. But it could take her twice or thrice the amount of time to get back up, fighting against gravity, pressure, tiredness, less oxygen...”

“It'll be dangerous.”

“Very dangerous. All we can do is keep a submarine at three kilometres so she doesn't have to swim the entire way, but that's all.”

“She'd still have to do ten kilometres in one direction, all the time she spends down there, and then ten kilometres up...”

“Yeah,” Abby sighed, shaking her head. “Ashlyn, it's in nine!”

Ashlyn gave them a thumb's up. She was swimming up, then letting gravity pull her down, then back up, checking how much effort she needed to do each time.

“Guys,” she said all of the sudden, panting. “I'm not feeling too well...”

“Right, we're stopping.”

“No! Keep going! It's just a few more kilometres!”

Ali glared at Abby.

“Abby stop it. It's finished, either we limit her or she'll kill herself.”

Abby nodded, pushing button.

“We finished Ashlyn, very good job mate!”

“I'm not finished!” Ashlyn argued, but the room was already emptying and the pressure going back to normal. Ashlyn fell to her knees and angrily punched the floor.

Abby sighed, turning to Ali.

“Atlantis is about as unreachable as Proxima Centauri b, even with our best technologies,” Abby murmured, shaking her head. “It'd take us so many years to get there...”

“Isn't there something like... an already made spaceship we could use for this?” Ali asked, trying to find some way. “Come on, Ashlyn can't die without knowing her home...”

“Believe me, I wish more than anything that she could go, see what happened, find whatever she's supposed to find... and one day it'll happen, but it'll be several years from now. Possibly even several decades,” Abby sighed, saddened. “You get her?”

“Yeah...” Ali was deeply saddened too, but she knew it was worse for Ashlyn. She went outside to the other room and found Ashlyn sitting on the floor, now dry, in her underwear, holding the badge in her hand. She looked absolutely crestfallen, which made Ali feel sad for her, and also had blood in her nose. “Babe, your nose...”

“It's just the pressure, it's fine,” Ashlyn murmured, cleaning the blood with her hand. “I should train more. I just need more training, to get fitter...”

“No,” Ali sat next to her, rubbing her back soothingly.”

“Divers train themselves and improve, I could—,”

“No.”

“What?” Ashlyn looked confused at her.

“Love, no. Stop it. It's enough,” Ali said softly. “You will kill yourself at the rhythm you're exerting, it's too much, it's finished.”

“You don't get to decide— I'm not like you, I'm not human, I don't have your race's weaknesses,” Ashlyn argued, shaking her head. “If you love me you shouldn't be trying to slow me down but to push me forward, you know what your problem is? You can't stand the idea that if I find my place and my people I might not want to return. You cannot fathom— you're being selfish. _I_ am an Atlantean, I come from the greatest race to ever live in this Earth,” she stood up, getting furious, and Ali looked hurt at her, standing up again, “and I will get there! What's impossible for you it's not for me, I am a superior race! I'll get there!”

Ali shook her head, looking at her full of disappointment.

“Wow. You're sounding more and more like a Nazi, you know?”

Ashlyn clenched her teeth, cleaning her nose on her wrist.

“The Nazis only had illusions. I am actually superior. You just wait.”

That said, she stormed past Ali and gathered her clothes. Abby had heard the fight, and was ready, getting up as Ashlyn dressed.

“Give me the costume.”

“It's mine.”

“No, it's property of the Corporation, I made it, it's mine.”

“I am the Corporation too. You made it for me. It's mine,” Ashlyn argued, fuming.

“Ashlyn, give it to me. I'm not letting you destroy my invention and yourself, if you keep it I'm sure you'll use it constantly until you kill yourself—,”

“I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR MYSELF! IF I KILL MYSELF, IT'S ON ME, YOU'RE NOT MY BOSS!” Ashlyn roared. Abby clenched her jaw.

“Fine. But that costume is mine. Copyright. Give it to me right now Ash, I don't want to have to call security on you, please.”

Ali came in as well, and observed silently.

“Take it off me,” said Ashlyn daringly, standing straight and muscled as she was. “If you have the balls.”

“Oh,” Abby was getting pissed off now. “Fine. If you steal that Ashlyn, we're done. You'll be kicked out of here, you'll lose us all, your friends, everything. No more fancy technologies from me. And if those aliens come to get you, you can start praying because I will let them get to you. You betray my trust Ashlyn, and we're done. Now do the fuck you want but if that costume is not in my office by the end of today, you and I are done and you better have cleaned your crap out of here because either you do it or my people will, and I've got guards from Xylo 8.”

Ali frowned, but understood Abby. Ashlyn was crossing many lines now, and it was as much as they could allow when they loved her and only meant things for her own good. But Ashlyn wasn't human and saw things differently. Ali thought she heard her growl and remembered when Ashlyn had told her she didn't always behave according to social conventions and standards, or human ethics. Atlantians understood loyalty and they were a military society, powerful in combat, made for it. So Ali knew this wasn't going to end well.

“I should've known not to trust humans. What, Abby? Are you too afraid I'll break your new toy? Are you too much of a coward to accept the challenge? Or do you simply don't want to invest your precious money in something that won't give you benefit? I bet if this was about finding your people, we'd have ten submarines ready, after all. But not mine.”

“Ashlyn, you know that's not true you stubborn idiot—,”

“Here,” Ashlyn angrily tossed the badge on the table. “I'll clean my crap.”

“Ashlyn, hey!” Abby rushed after her, and so did Ali. “Come on! Talk to me, I want to help you!”

“Ashlyn, we love you baby, you can't just go, come on, we're trying to help you!” Ali added pleadingly. Ashlyn stopped in her tracks and turned angrily to them.

“You don't!” Ashlyn shouted at them, stomping so hard the floor cracked. “You think I'm stupid or what? I've studied humans my whole fucking life, you guys only care about yourselves, and even within the same race you're only loyal to your same nation and colour, you can't even help each other as a united human race. You torture animals for fun, you destroy the forests and the nature because you're selfish bastards that only care about money and power, and you keep innocent animals in factories, tortured and mass-murdered to produce more food than you even eat, without even having to kill what you consume but have someone else do it for you. You are the lowest of the creation... you are the universe's mistake. And I should've never trusted humans, not even those who claim to love me. You have no fucking idea what love is.”

She turned around and stormed out and this time, Abby and Ali were too shocked to follow.

  
  



	14. Alone

**Chapter 14: Alone.**

Just some time later, Ali found their friends in Abby and Glennon's large dinning room, where they always saw each other at the end of a long day. Sydney was working there too now, and so were Pinoe, and Ali's friends with different studies, Christen Press, Alex Morgan, Crystal Dunn and Becky Sauerbrunn, who Ali had recommended for different jobs in the technological, communications, or creativity departments of the company. There were also some of Ashlyn, Abby and Pinoe's closest friends, Heather O'Reilly, Whitney Engen and Tobin Heath, all of whom were very close friends who worked in a variety of different areas in the company. Ashlyn's mother, of course, was also there, but not Abby's parents, who since retirement only passed by once a week. Kyle, Ali's brother, was the newest addition, after they had asked him whether he'd like to put his filming issues to the company's use for good money, filming and editing videos to record their missions or offer simulations of what was out there.

Ali had tears in her eyes.

“She's gone. Picked everything and left, only left behind her phone, her wallet and her laptop. She's clearly not planning on continuing a human life.”

“Shit...” Abby puffed, shaking her hand. She had barely eaten, and now all her appetite had vanished altogether.

“You didn't find her either?” Ali asked Tammye, sitting with her. The older woman looked saddened, but not panicking.

“No, but I can imagine where she's gone.”

“Where?” asked Pinoe, worried for her friend.

“Probably diving in Cocoa Beach, if I had to beat. Sleeping in the mountains,” Tammye shrugged. “We used to take the kids camping to the mountains when they were little, going as far as necessary to get the clearest sky.”

“Then I should go, she's vulnerable now if they get to her—,” Ali was interrupted by Tammye.

“Just let her be, sweetie. I know you mean only well, but right now she needs to be alone. She knows how to take care of herself better than any of us, her natural instincts kick in when she's out there, she will fish or butcher her food with her own hands if she needs it, find shelter, and be so isolated the aliens won't find her either. And if they do, she's learned the lesson, she'll know to evaporate and go with the wind, she's mostly water after all.”

“How aren't you... dying of worry?” Sydney asked, confused. Tammye snorted, smiling sadly.

“I know my children fairly well. Ashlyn didn't trust anyone, when she was little. She feared the neighbours, everyone. She always knew they weren't like her, and then she'd read books, watch TV... she started to see humans as a cruel, selfish race. She was surprised we divided in countries and each fought their own interests, surprised about racism, xenophobia, homophobia... she might not have grown up in her own planet, but something in her brain knew her race's way of thinking and it was different. But she trusted us. Her parents and her brother. The way she understood it, we couldn't be bad people if we had taken her in our homes as our family member,” Tammye explained. “But she didn't have many friends, or anything. Even less when you're always bullied for your weirdness, and her brains and her limitless talent... and Christopher was her best friend in the world. She never got over the way we lost him. The Harrises have soldiers in the family, she was one, the way she saw it the country would protect him, us. She had been brainwashed like everyone else to believe the greatness of our nation, it resonated with her Atlantean nature of people made for war. The Navy gave her a sense of belonging, loyalty, team... everything she craved from her own culture. And then her own country failed to protect her brother and for her, being what she is, that was extra hard to gulp. And then seeing those people kill her own father. Have him die in her arms, a good man... she'll never recover. And now she thinks she has no one to trust but herself, and me, but she won't come to me knowing there's nothing I can do. She just needs to be alone with herself, to feel the loneliness, the sadness, to mourn... to accept the last bit of hope for finding her people is gone, that it most likely will never happen, that if she can't get to them—,”

“They can't come to her,” Ali suddenly realized. “Oh my God Ashlyn thought they saved themselves in the island. She thought they found a way to live underwater, and if she was capable of reaching them, it meant they were capable of reaching her, didn't she?” Tammye pressed her lips together sadly and nodded.

“She was only two years old when she told us she came from the ocean. Not from the stars. She pointed at the ocean and said 'home', and when we asked her what she meant she said, 'that's where I come from'. Age two,” added Tammye, and released a deep sigh. “We had to read her about Atlantis fairly early, and she always wanted to know more and I think it was the only thing that comforted her every time we forced her to learn what she called 'stupid human rules'. You don't bite your classmates if they make you angry with the bullying. It's not right to break a child's nose on purpose. School rules and state laws are to be respected. All that stuff, she didn't get it. But when we read her of Atlantis she found a world that worked with what her heart told her were the right words and... you can take a lion out of the sahara, but you can't take the sahara out of the lion, you know? Atlantis lives in her, and she'll spend her entire life trying to find them. I've heard her cry calling for her true parents to 'pick her up already' more times than I can count, if you think she's going to sit here and accept it's over, that there's nothing she can do, that out of her world she'll never be as powerful as her race, that in the Earth she's more vulnerable and weaker like humans and she can't even kill the people who killed her people... you're absolutely wrong, I'm afraid. She'll wait her entire life for her parents to pick her up and take her home, and in the meantime she'll keep trying to find them, and if she can't, she'll keep trying with or without help, even if she has to do it alone. And don't think she'll be too tired of loneliness because the way she sees it, she's been alone her whole life. It's the feeling she controls best.”

Ali sighed, desperate to help but knowing she couldn't.

“What can we do Tammye?” Abby asked softly.

“Nothing. Wait and hope for the best,” Tammye said. “She needs time to accept all the things she had all the faith on have failed her. Science, astronomy, us... everything. She needs to bid farewell, stop waiting for anyone to come.”

“What if we kept trying to find a way to get to Atlantis?” Pinoe proposed. “Maybe if she sees we're trying, even if we never succeed, she'll understand we're in the same page.”

“It's better if you don't feed those hopes, Pinoe. Otherwise she won't let go, and it's important to learn to let go of things. Stop believing in Santa, accept the dead are dead... and then she can move on with her life. She has to accept her only choice is to accept the mundane human life in which you get a job and live here until you die, not up there, one in which you don't get to do magic all the time with other people who can do it too, a normal life that doesn't revolve around finding a lost civilization. There's only, perhaps, one thing we could do, but we have never succeeded.”

“What?” Ali inquired.

“Find out what happened. Confirm they're dead and discover why and how. Bring her some closure.”

“What happened to Atlantis?” Abby asked.

“No,” Ali understood Tammye. “To all of them.”

Meanwhile, far away, Ashlyn was walking into the night, mountain up, through the dense forests. She didn't fear wildlife or alien life, or anyone for that matter. She was alone, in pitch black darkness, only illuminated by the torch she had managed to light up, and now, after hours walking, when exhaustion had finally set in, only now did she think of finding shelter. So she climbed to the top of a dense tree of thick branches, high as it went, and at the top, she sat on a thick branch with her back against the trunk, and looked up at the stars. From here, she could see the ocean and the city lights far away, and all of the stars.

She had cried all she could cry, and now she was left with this feeling of hollowness and loneliness.

“Come back...” she murmured, looking up, pleading. “You forgot me here, and I'm tired of being here alone. It's not funny anymore. I want to go home. I want to go home right now, damn it.”

Ashlyn rubbed her eyes and pulled her old tablet from her backpack, turning it on. And this time she did her best not to focus on the chaos, on the fear, on the loudness of combat... she looked at eyes that looked like hers, the similar cheeks and chin, the similar waves in the hair. She tried to engrave her parents' faces in her eyes.

At last she put the tablet away and pulled out her baby blanket, hugging it tight until she fell asleep.

For several days, Ashlyn paced around the States without any concrete route. She walked and walked, killed and cooked her own food and made her own drinkable water. She didn't need human money or anything, really. She knew the North with the position of the sun and the stars, and she continued to walk, sometimes swim, that was faster, as her mind figured out a plan, a resolution, something she could do. By the time Ali's birthday came up, she was swimming along the shore, her things in her waterproof backpack, leaving Florida for South Carolina.

The special day came to her mind, and she felt sad for a moment that she couldn't give Ali what she had promised she would give her. She felt she was betraying her lover, and hated it. But, after much consideration, she realized there was one thing she could do, to let Ali know she was thinking of her. She remembered how much Ali loved snow in Virginia, how she complained it never snowed in Orlando... and so Ashlyn sat and began to try and provoke meteorological changes further from her each time. And after a few hours, and having in count she had been training her whole life, she felt she could provoke a change of weather as far as in the island where Wambach & Harris Corp. was, and thus, she sent a great snowfall that way, not so big that it'd be annoying, but enough for Ali to have enough snow to build snowmen for her birthday.

Her hazel eyes stared at the sky as she saw the dark clouds in the far horizon, from her position at the rooftop of a skyscraper, where she had gone to check, and knew she had achieved it.

A month later, her tired feet made it to the Pentagon. She wandered outside for hours, until she saw her; Jenna May was the head of the Department of Air Force, and she had been there long enough to cover her time in the NASA, and her brother's time in the NASA, plus her father's murder. Ashlyn quietly followed her to the car, and then evaporated to follow her through the air as May went to do some shopping. Ashlyn finally reappeared as the woman sat in her home office reading the mail.

“Hello Mrs May,” Ashlyn said softly, locking the door.

The woman got startled and jumped from her seat, putting a hand on her heart.

“Ms Harris! How did you get in here? What are you doing here?”

“Your assistant let me in. I've been waiting.”

“Marsha! Mar—!”

But Ashlyn interrupted her screams raising a hand and causing the saliva in Mrs May's throat to freeze, making her cough insistently.

“I'm afraid I can't let you draw attention, Mrs May,” said Ashlyn. She had already caused for the security cameras to break using ice, last she needed was for Mrs May to call anyone inside. “I'm a good... woman. I don't want to hurt you. And everything will be all right as long as you collaborate and tell me all I want to know.”

The woman coughed until the ice melt and she then looked scared at Ashlyn.

“How did you... what...?”

“I am the one who makes the questions here, Mrs May. Please sit down.”

“You don't give orders—,”

“I said sit down,” Ashlyn repeated more firmly, and this time she moved a hand in the direction of the water jaw that sat on a corner of the desk, and the water started to boil. “Or should I scald your eyes... or your son's?”

Afraid, the older woman sat down.

“I thought you were a teacher now. I see you've become a terrorist.”

“Oh hell no,” Ashlyn shook her head. “I don't have time to lose. I'm going to make you some questions and I want you to answer with nothing but the absolute truth. If I have even the slight suspicion you're lying, I will start freezing your fingers, and if you continue, I will start breaking your frozen fingers. And if you make anybody else come in here, I will kill them without a second thought. Are we clear?”

Mrs May gulped, and her light blue eyes filled with fear before she nodded.

“I'll tell you all you want to know.”

“What happened to Christopher Ryan Harris? And don't tell me you've forgotten him. He was an NASA astronaut, he was sent on a mission to spend a year flying around Mars, exploring, researching, and something happened to his spaceship and it exploded without an explanation. What happened?”

“We aren't entirely sure. It's the truth, I swear!” the woman added, panicking, as she saw Ashlyn flinch. “He and his team were supposed to give us aerial footage, gather information, observe Mars' conditions for life first hand... but then suddenly... all we could ever find out was that it seemed like something had attacked them from Mars, but we could never know what. It was like... like a laser that made the spaceship explode.”

“Aliens from Mars?”

“Maybe... I guess. Hostile ones. But we had no idea, back then, that there was life in Mars, let alone hostile. The President ordered us to say it was a technical failure, said the world would lose their royal minds if they knew there were such dangerous creatures so close to us.”

“What about Michael and Tammye Harris? People sent by the Pentagon burned their house with all their research and themselves inside, they were burned alive and you have to know who organized it.”

Mrs May nodded nervously.

“Michael Harris and his wife found out exactly what happened to Christopher. The Department of International Security believed that they were crazy about aliens and would alter the world, work with aliens for power or perhaps just tell everyone there were worlds out there wanting to kill us and cause panic. They thought it wasn't convenient to have two people know too much... so they had to end the threat.”

“The threat?”

“That's how they called them. It was the President's orders. That's all we did.”

“Thanks, Mrs May. That's all I needed to know. Now, I trust you won't tell anyone of my little visit, right? Because I believe your son Brandon wants to play basketball and it'd be a shame he lost his legs in an unfortunate accident, right?”

Shaking, the woman nodded.

“I'll keep my lips sealed.”

“Good job. Thank you. Have a lovely evening.”

Ashlyn evaporated again, and came back to her regular shape just around the corner of Sidwell Friends School. It had taken her intense practice for years to dominate her ability to become vapour and return to shape as she pleased, only in the recent months she had managed to extend the ability to her clothes and solid objects on top so they'd evaporate with her, and she still hated doing it. It made her feel uneasy for hours afterwards, as if she wasn't too solid, but now she didn't have a choice.

The President's son and daughter went to this school. She searched in her bag and found a scarf, a beanie and gloves, which she used to cover herself. Then, she took off her coat, put on her backpack, turned her coat the inside out, and put it back on over the bag, and readjusted her beanie and scarf to make sure her face and hair were covered, only leaving her eyes out, which she covered with sunglasses.

Then, she evaporated once more and appeared inside the large gardens where the teenagers and kids went to play and jog in their free time. Cautiously, she hid behind the trees and waited until she identified one of the President's daughters wandering alone, jogging and listening to music. She was fifteen, and clearly thought a lot of herself.

Ashlyn caused for a pool of water to abruptly appear under her and the teenager fell, opportunity Ashlyn used to seize her, grabbing her tight by the neck and press her against the trunk. The teenager's eyes widened and she became purple as she tried to call for help. _You are going to die._ Ashlyn thought. _The President is going to learn what it feels to lose your family, he's going to suffer for what he's done..._

And then, something happened. Ashlyn thought of Ali's laughter, her kisses, the way she held her with so much... _love_. One she had never known before. She thought of how her adoptive parents had loved her too, warned her against people who tried to hurt her... how they had taught her she was a good woman, and she had defended that to Kenneth Krieger. And suddenly, her hold loosened and the teenager fell to her knees, gasping for air.

“I'm sorry,” Ashlyn murmured. And before the teenager could do anything else, Ashlyn had evaporated and was gone.

Looking ahead in her new location, she was met face to face with the Kriegers' home in Orlando.

  
  



	15. Together forever

**Chapter 15: Together forever.**

Once she had fixed her clothes and returned them to her bag, as it was incredibly hot in Orlando and she'd rather just be in short sleeves, Ashlyn walked to the front door and pressed the doorbell. After a few minutes, the door opened and Debbie grinned at her.

“Ashlyn! It's been so long!” Debbie hugged her tight. “Are you okay honey? Ali's known nothing from you in nearly two months now... she's been worried sick.”

“I fucked up Debbie. I did something really bad.”

“Come in, we can talk,” Debbie pushed her inside the house. “My husband's at work. I'm on summer holidays, you know schools... so it's just us. Can I offer you something to drink or eat? You look so skinny...”

“It's fine. Tea, maybe.”

“Okay. Make yourself at home.”

After a few minutes, Debbie came back with two cups of tea and they sat in the living room.

“How's Ali?” Ashlyn asked after a while. “How has she been?”

“Worried, stressed, tired... won't stop working. She says she owes you.”

“Owes me?”

“I'm as confused as you are,” Debbie side smiled small. “What happened to you?”

Ashlyn shrugged.

“I've been feeling very sad. And very lonely and... angry. And now I don't know what to do. I think I have crossed too many lines.”

“You see, Ashlyn... humanity as a race might be cursed. It might be cruel, selfish, hurtful, bloodthirsty, egoistical—,”

“I see Ali told you what I said.”

Debbie sighed with a kind expression, and nodded.

“But,” she reached to squeeze Ashlyn's hands, “we're also several hundreds of millions of people, in the most diversity possible. And that diversity has room for all kinds of people, in ways that you'd be surprised to find are the same race. That's when you find good people, truly good with kind, big hearts like your parents and brother, who find an alien in their backyard and don't flinch, don't fear... they take her in and love her, protect her, give her all they have... and call her daughter, sister, love.”

“They've been really incredible people,” Ashlyn agreed.

“Yes. And they're not the only ones. Pinoe saved your life even when she's human, more vulnerable, easier to kill than you. She was scared, but she didn't hesitate, because you are her best friend and that means something. Abby has put all her resources, friendship, care and attention to protect you, your family, your friends... and all for what? What does she get? Not money. Not power. She didn't even ask you to work with her, she offered it. She did it all because she loves you, because you're her oldest friend and she cares. I could go on with every one of your friends... but let me skip to Ali. I know who I raised, she's not perfect... but Ashlyn, she loves you with her whole heart. She's never loved anyone as much as you, you know what that means?”

Ashlyn shrugged.

“I'm not sure. If she loves me, why does she keep standing in my way?”

“For the same reason you didn't let her stay and fight with you. To protect you like you tried to protect her,” Debbie replied. “You know what you feel every time you think of your family in Atlantis? The anguish of not knowing what happened, who killed them, why? If you'll see them again? If maybe they are alive?”

“Yes...”

“That's what Ali has been feeling for nearly two months now, thinking of you, worrying sick. That's love. That means she cares. That's how much she cares. You've been ready to break all your friendships and partnership for the Atlanteans, who you never even knew... what wouldn't Ali do for you, who she knows and loves first hand?”

“She's been looking for me?”

“She wanted to. But your Mum told us all to give you space. She thought the more we chased you, the more you'd run.”

Ashlyn snorted a laugh.

“She knows me well, she raised me after all.”

Debbie gave her a sweet smile. She had stopped dying her hair now, and it was long and white, platinum with her age.

“Exactly. And I think she and Mike raised a good woman, just like my ex husband and I raised a good woman in Ali, don't you think?”

Ashlyn frowned and then looked pleadingly at her, troubled.

“But I've done something horrible. Ali won't forgive me.”

“She'd surprise you. What is it, honey? What did you do?”

“I cornered the head of the Air Force. I threatened her and her loved-ones so she would tell me the truth about my brother and father, and she told me everything and basically, she followed the President's orders. So then I wanted for him to feel what my Mum and I felt... and I tried to kill one of his daughters. She's fourteen,” Debbie frowned lightly.

“Oh, sweetie...”

“I almost did it, I wanted to. But for some reason... I suddenly regretted it and left her alone.”

“Not for some reason, Ashlyn. Because you're a good woman.”

“But I wanted to kill her! And people from Atlantis, we're warriors, we live for the fight—,”

“You are good people of honour too. People who'd do anything for their loved ones, even send them to a foreign planet alone as babies... and besides, Ashlyn. You don't have to be like most Atlanteans or most humans. Your race doesn't automatically define you.”

Ashlyn looked at her with tears of despair in her eyes.

“Doesn't it?”

“No. You choose who you are. You look into your heart every day and you make constant decisions, one after another, to define the kind of person you're going to choose to be. Good or bad. Kind or cruel. Today, you let grief drive you to a feeling as natural as revenge and you almost did something horrible... but that's the difference between good and bad. Bad people have no mercy, no regret, no conscience. Good people do. And that's what pushed you to correct your behaviour, avoid a big mistake, do the right thing. Because you know you can be many things, you're not perfect, but you're not a murderer, are you?”

Ashlyn shook her head.

“I don't want to be. I want to be good. I want...”

“What is it?”

“I want to stop feeling this shitty. And when I'm with Ali... I feel good. But she was disappointed, I hurt her... she won't forgive me.”

“Of course she will. Remember you're surrounded by good people. People who love you and only want what's best for you... why wouldn't they forgive you? But you need to learn to forgive yourself and for that... I'd advise you start with I'm sorry.”

Ashlyn nodded.

“Maybe you're right.”

“Did you come here looking for Ali?”

Ashlyn shook her head.

“I was looking for you. I don't want my Mum to know what I almost did... but I figured you'd be the next best option available, and I was right,” Debbie smiled small. “What do I do now, Debbie? How do I fix this?”

Debbie pursed her lips in thought for a moment.

“Do you have a birthday present for Ali?”

**. . .**

After a good night of rest at Debbie's house, snuggled in Ali's old bed and wrapped up in her scent, Ashlyn parted ways full of gratefulness and with the stomach full of homemade breakfast, hugging Debbie and promised she'd make good decisions from now on. Better ones. She walked for several hours, deciding the stroll would be good for her, and eventually, she made it to the beach. Knowing the exact position where she needed to be and the secret password, the ocean parted to show her a way through, until she reached the island of Wambach & Harris Corp.

Ashlyn walked with a renewed sense of purpose and more calmness in her chest than she had felt in a long time, and at last, entered the main building by lunch time, and walked to Abby and Glennon's apartment. The door slid open without problem, and as she expected, she found her friends and family gathered in the dining room for lunch, as usual. Hearing her, they all turned around and looked shocked and surprised to see her. Tammye smiled and nodded and Ashlyn smiled back at her, but her eyes flew to Ali. And before she could focus on her, the brunette hand run to her and jumped to her arms.

“Ops, hey,” Ashlyn smiled, hugging her tightly. “I'm so, so, so sorry. I was a dickhead, what I said was horrible and not true and I love you and I'm so sorry.”

“It's okay,” Ali squeezed her tighter, burying her face in her neck. “It's okay. You came back. I love you.”

“I will never leave you again. I promise.”

Ali separated and cupped her face, smiling sweetly.

“You look so slim, come sit down you need to eat properly.”

“I did, just... lots of exercise,” Ashlyn kissed her again. “I missed you.”

“Ehem...” they separated and Ashlyn grinned seeing her mother standing there. “Not to interrupt you lovebirds but— oh!” Ashlyn was already hugging her tight. “Hello sweetie.”

Ali looked lovingly at the pair. Nothing made her heart feel bigger than seeing Ashlyn's love for her adoptive mother. Eventually Ashlyn separated and kissed her mother's cheek.

“Sorry I vanished, Mum...”

“It's all right. Are you okay?” Ashlyn nodded. “Good, that's all I care about.”

“And uhm...” Ashlyn turned and walked to Abby, who stood up and crossed arms over her chest, looking expectantly at her. Ashlyn sighed, hands submissively in her pockets. “I'm sorry Abby, you deserve better from me and I was the selfish one. I was only thinking of my own interests and I let it cloud my judgement. And to prove it won't happen again... I have decided to drop my research on Atlantis. As cool as your toys are, there won't be more risky explorations, ventures into the unknown to try and find them, nothing. They're dead, and the sooner I stop looking for their remains the safer everyone will be. Therefore... I no longer want to be a part of your astronomy, cosmology and astrophysics teams, in fact, I no longer want to be involved with anything that happens up there, unless it's absolutely mandatory to fight this ongoing threat. From now on, I'll focus on training to confront any threats that may come such as the ones we've had, and that's it.”

“That's it? You're dropping a lifetime of research?” Abby inquired with a frown, her light blue eyes piercing her.

“It's only a lifetime of research if I devote my whole life to it, and I don't want to do that anymore. I think it's time I start seeing the Earth as my one planet, and forgetting anything else. After all, I'm more humane than Atlantean, anyway.”

“You don't have to do that...”

“I don't do it for anyone but myself, I promise.”

Abby nodded and sighed, looking severely at her.

“Very well. Now, can I know why you've tried to kill one of the daughters of the President of the United States?”

Ashlyn's eyes widened, not expecting her to know already, and Ali frowned.

“Ashlyn would never...”

“I was about to tell you,” Ashlyn assured, looking from one to the other. “I was going to...”

“I don't care. Why did you do that? That kid is fifteen, Ashlyn. What you've done? That's punishable by death in this country,” Abby said fixing her eyes coldly on her. “And if it wasn't because I was called by the President itself, and because you're the only explanation I could think of, because of all the aliens in this building only you could come in and out of that school so easily, I would've never thought you capable of something like that. I couldn't believe the President. Don't worry, nothing but those here now know it was you, I told the President I'd investigate it, because otherwise he'd have you arrested for treason and you'd be dead by now.”

“You don't have to lie for—,”

“Why Ashlyn?” Abby repeated.

Ashlyn let out a deep breath, looking down.

“Because I found out what happened to Chris,” she turned to Tammye, “and to Dad. Christopher was attacked by Martians, and the President covered it up so the world could still think that humanity had any chance of ever living in Mars,” Tammye stood up very straight and frowned, thoughtful. “Truth is as far as the NASA could check that day, Martians don't want anything to do with humans and current NASA technology is no threat for them. They exploded Christopher's spaceship when it flew near Mars, they didn't even need to leave the planet to kill them.”

“That's hardly a little girl's fault,” Abby murmured.

“I know. But my Dad found out the truth, and he was a good man, Abby. The President thought my Mum and Dad knew everything—,”

“We didn't,” Tammye frowned. “We had never been particularly interested in Mars, we imagined there were Martians but we had no idea...”

“I know,” Ashlyn nodded. “I figured. Anyway, the President judged you and Dad to be dangerous, for some reason. He told the head of the Air Force, my former boss, Mrs May, that you guys would blow it all up, that you would inform the country, and everyone would freak out or something, it'd be global panic if people knew we had such a strong civilization capable of killing us so easily living right next to us. And then the President ordered your deaths. Yours and Dad's. Mrs May knew everything because she was in the meeting when this was discussed.”

“How do you know she said the truth? Do you honestly believe the President would order the deaths of two innocent scientists who don't even work for the Government anymore?” Abby scowled at her. “How did you get any information?”

“She said the truth because I've known her for years, I know when she lies I've got some instinct, and I threatened her family,” Ashlyn told Abby. “I'm sure she said the truth. And come on Abby, don't be naïve. Hitler was capable of ordering the deaths of trillions of innocent people, what wouldn't the President of America do? Open your eyes. Of course he did it, and if you weren't so powerful he wouldn't have any problems ordering your death too, or do you think he's pleased about a Corporation with more power than he has?”

Abby gulped, nodding slowly. It did make some sense.

“Still, it's not that little girl's fault.”

“I know! Which is why my first instinct was to kill the President himself, but then I figured... I know what it is to lose your father. Putting some kids through that pain wouldn't do anything.”

“And killing a fifteen year old innocent girl would?!”

“Yes! Because his father loves her, and he's the one that needed to pay. If she was killed, if he suffered that... it's an eye for an eye. He'd feel some of what my mother and I have to live with.”

“That's the most despicable thing you've said and that's saying a lot—,”

“The important thing,” Ali intervened, sensing the rage grow again, “what matters is that she didn't kill her after all. Let's remember that, uh? Let's not judge her for something that didn't happen in the end.”

“She still—!”

“Babe,” Glennon intervened, standing up as well. “Take a deep breath. We will reassure the President that we found and finished the threat and that they're safe and it won't happen again. Problem solved, I don't think we should make drama of what hasn't happened, Ali's right.”

Abby took a deep breath and glared at Ashlyn.

“So what stopped you?”

“Funnily enough, humanity. I realized it wasn't ethical, it wasn't right, and...” Ashlyn shrugged. “I did feel bad about it. I had remorse, regret... and so I didn't do it. And I won't do anything moved by revenge, I won't try again.”

“You do realize your word is worth nothing to me anymore, do you?”

“I do. To you, I've committed treason. To you, you'd forgive me for raping your wife but you wouldn't forgive me for breaking the President's nose,” Ashlyn said calmly.

“What's that supposed to mean?” Abby growled angrily.

“That you need to put in order your priorities, Abby. I'm not the only one who's had them wrong all along,” said Ashlyn. “You are playing with fire. You haven't stopped being a Marine, and you need to stop thinking so highly of people who wouldn't flinch to kill you the moment it was more convenient, and start owing more loyalty to those of us, who would actually die for you.”

“Oh, and you would? I should be more loyal to you than to my President and my country?”

“Well yes. Who stood beside you in the battlefield, Abby? I did. You know where the President was? In his luxurious bedroom fucking some mistress.”

“Don't you speak like that about—,”

“Oh fuck's sakes, don't make me laugh!” Ashlyn frowned at her. “Stop it, will you? He doesn't care, the Government doesn't give two shits about you, or the astronauts or the soldiers, if we die, better us than them! Better my brother, or my father, who've never been but good people, than them! You're only as worth to your country as your value in money, Abby, and thinking anything else is lying to yourself.”

“Ali please take her away before I break her stupid face. You're fired Ashlyn. Effect immediately. And get your crap out of here.” Abby clenched her teeth. Ashlyn nodded slowly.

“So this is it, uh?” Ashlyn looked depreciatingly at Abby. “At the end of the day I'm just an alien and your people come first, and that's not me.”

“I don't kick your butt because you're an alien, I do it because you're a traitor and I can't trust you.”

“Of course. So the fact that I'd care enough about your people to risk my life to protect them doesn't mean anything to you, uh? That I would've given my life to a country for which I mean nothing? Maybe you're not so different from the President after all.”

Ali glared at Abby, feeling the situation like a jar of cold water.

“I quit,” Ali said. “Let's go Ash.”

“Me too,” Tammye added. “See this is why Mike and I refused to work in corporations. In the end there's always someone with a God complex.”

“Oh shut up!” Abby snarled.

“Don't,” Ashlyn had been leaving, but turned and stepped between Abby and her mother, glaring at Abby, “raise your voice against my mother. I'd die for you, but I'd kill you for her without a moment of hesitation.”

“Then you better leave before I don't let you.”

“Can you guys stop?” Glennon pushed her wife. “Jesus, what's wrong with you? I love you honey... but I've never been so disappointed on you in my life.”

She turned away and left, furious. Pinoe got up slowly and looked around the table.

“Is there anyone here who wishes to keep working here? No? Yeah I thought so,” Pinoe looked at Abby. “Bye Abster.”

  
  


  
  



	16. Pick your side

**Chapter 16: Pick your side.**

“This shouldn't have gone like this...” Ashlyn murmured. “Debbie said she'd forgive me... That you all would.”

“Well my Mum is not an oracle, but everyone else did forgive you.”

They were lying naked on the bed, after intense love making to get reacquainted with each other and give an out to their anger and frustration, in the secret refugee Mike and Tammye had guaranteed themselves ages ago, in case they ever needed to hide.

Now that they didn't trust Abby anymore, they had needed to go there, a small patrol vessel where they could live with Tammye, Kyle, Rapinoe and Sue, and sail in the Atlantic without being constantly followed around. The vessel was formerly of the Coastal Guard, and was big enough to have bedrooms for everyone, a computers' room, an infirmary, and a large space in deck to stretch the legs, and between all of them, they managed the ship. Tammye, Ashlyn and Megan were experts, while the others learned as they went.

“This is such a mess,” Ashlyn sighed, rolling and sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the window. “I'm so sorry.”

“You did the right thing,” Ali knelt behind her, hugging her and pressing her body against her back. “And we're safe, so are our families back in Florida. We've managed to keep everyone safe... that's what counts.”

Suddenly the emergency alarms went off and they jumped.

“Get dressed, run!”

The couple threw some clothes off and ran to the deck, where everyone appeared in pyjamas and coats. It was the middle of the night, after all.

“What's happening?” Ali demanded, hugging herself. “The ship seems fine to me.”

“It's not the ship,” Pinoe said, and pointed at the sky.

There were black clouds that had opened and red lights coming through, figures approaching Washington DC, near which they had been navigating to check on Ali's Dad. The lights were about to reach the skyscrapers when suddenly there was a explosion in the air, and US Air Force's planes appeared out of the blue. There was a combat in the air, but every now and then, explosions began to be heard in the city, and smoke started to come out of here.

“They're here,” Ashlyn muttered. “We have to go. We have to go now!”

Tammye and Megan ran to the controls room almost at once, and Ashlyn began to shout indications left and right, and everyone moved.

The ship was moving at top speed now as they struggled to get ready, putting clothes on as fast as they could. Ashlyn and Megan put back on their old combat uniforms from the Navy, and Ashlyn gave her bulletproof vest to Ali, helping her put it on.

“Stay safe in the ship, with Mum and Sue,” Ashlyn said, looking intently at her.

“No I'm going with you—,”

“They are aliens, Ali. You're not a threat for them,” Ashlyn caressed her cheeks. “And I can't fight knowing you're in danger. I need you to be safe, take care of my Mum and I'll take care of everything else.”

“Fine...”

“Hey,” Ashlyn smiled at her, removing her protective helmet and putting it on Ali. “I love you. And when all of this is over... I'm going to buy us a real home, okay? Just you and I and nothing else matters, okay?”

Ali smiled softly at her, even though she was full of fear inside, and nodded.

“I love you, stay safe, you don't have Abby's toy...”

Ashlyn kissed her hard on the lips.

“I've got something better.”

“Harris! Are you ready?” Pinoe shouted opening the door. “Let's go! I think Abby's people got there already!”

“Go, I'll be waiting for you to come back,” Ali kissed her back and Ashlyn ran off with Pinoe.

They ran through the pier and where in downtown DC as fast as they could. Around them everything was chaos. Strange bloodthirsty creatures they had never seen, the height of trucks, were attacking left and right, the military was out, the police, and in the sky another battle. It was completely chaotic.

“Stay safe Pinoe, I'll see you when this is over!” Ashlyn told her best friend.

“You better!”

They ran in separate directions, joining forces with anybody they could, and finding Abby's people battling too. Abby's team had aliens from all over the galaxy that like Ashlyn, had ended up in the Earth one way or another, and stayed. They had made lives here, and many of them could, even if sometimes it wasn't the entire time like Ashlyn, look perfectly human, but now they all were back to their alien shapes, wearing the vests that identified them as members of Abby's Corporation.

Wherever you looked, there was blood, battle, screams and death. Citizens seemed isolated at home, but having in count that many buildings were in flames, not just from the battle in the streets but from the ships falling as they were taken down, smoke everywhere, and panic.

Ashlyn confronted the first alien, punching faces that looked a lot like mini dragons, of greenish colours, that could actually communicate with each other in a language Ashlyn didn't know, and attack with weapons of the finest technologies. Others looked like bigger humans with black eyes and sharp, long teeth, but they all worked together.

“Take that you bastard!” Ashlyn grabbed a pole and sank it through an alien's chest, nailing them against the wall, finally killing one.

Then she looked down and saw a helicopter flying over the skyscraper next to hers, struggling as two velociraptor-like aliens invaded it. Ashlyn ran to the skyscraper and started climbing it as fast as she could, finally reaching the top and jumping, her hands managing to hold onto one of the landing skids. Flipping in the air, Ashlyn made it into the aircraft just as one of the creatures snapped one of the soldier's head in two. Ashlyn jumped and kicked the creature in the face, making them fall off the aircraft, and then grabbed the other from behind as they went to attack the pilot.

“Go hurt someone your size!” Ashlyn created a spear of ice and used it to cut the bastard's neck off, making blue blood splash everywhere as the alien died. “Are you all right?” she added, looking at the pilot, who nodded.

“I think so!”

“Return to the base!”

Ashlyn carefully climbed to the top of the helicopter and started creating spears of ice that she threw towards the enemies she could see climbing on US Aircraft, stabbing them like pinchos. That helped the soldiers take down some spaceships, and Ashlyn jumped down to the closest skyscraper, staring at the city from there. The streets were full of allies, and it seemed like maybe they were winning, but she wasn't so sure.

And then, her eyes saw it, and she watched in terror, powerless, as one of the spaceships collapsed right on top of the ship she had left Ali, her mother, Sue and Kyle in.

Her throat ripped in a scream of horror, seeing the vessel explode and sink in the ocean near the pier, knowing her loved ones were gone, and suddenly she felt a different kind of rage. She saw red. She was so furious, so hurt, so about to explode... she screamed, and everything near her became ice. Feeling the power in her hands, she threw them towards the streets full of aliens and tsunamis appeared, only sparing 'the good guys', as if knowing who to kill or not, and taking down their angry visitants from space.

“Die,” Ashlyn growled. She didn't feel any humanity left. She felt raw, capable of anything, without any mercy or remorse. And so she jumped, free falling to the ground, to which she landed with a growl, sinking the ground slightly under her feet. She fixed eyes on her next victim, a black-eyed humanoid who had just sliced a policewoman's throat with its own teeth. “Leave my people ALONE!” she was on him in an instant, grabbing his head, that froze under her hands, before snapping it away.

Ashlyn was fighting like never before in her life. She someone who doesn't care if they live or die, someone who's just ready to take as many down with her as possible. After all, she had nothing to lose. And as she fought, she felt a different energy and power within her, she felt herself grow, literally and metaphorically, until she was ten centimetres taller, her body was fitter and stronger, and her special skills had evolved to brand new levels. Now, she could freeze entire streets, provoke tsunamis, flip in the air athletically over entire military trucks, and run faster than ever before. She could create such hot vapour of water that aliens' skins filled with blisters and they screamed in pain, becoming easier to kill by the soldiers, and so quickly, she made her way through town, until she arrived to the White House.

Now, there was no one to stop her from storming in, the fence was broken, and she could easily walk inside, which immediately made her suspect. As Ashlyn walked inside, she saw dead bodies piled together, and finally, she heard voices near one of the rooms around the corner. Ashlyn stopped and listened to a strange voice from an alien.

“For the last time, where is the Atlantean?!” the voice screamed furiously.

“Here she is,” Ashlyn walked inside, and what she saw, deeply disturbed her. These aliens looked like bigger, more fierce versions of the humanoids she had killed, and were grey, with big black eyes and long, sharp teeth and claws. They had armours and weapons, and now several of them were pointing weapons threateningly at the President, who cried on his knees, powerless. One of the aliens, the one who had been talking, was clearly the leader, as all the others seemed to protect her.

Abby was unconscious on the floor, looking pale and with blood covering her torso, her special gun, more powerful than any the military had, was on the floor next to her, and she seemed to have lost the hand with which she was holding it. Other deaths in the room had the badges of Wambach Corp., and the President's wife and children lied dead aside.

Now all the aliens turned to Ashlyn, who gulped, afraid for the first time, and the leader grinned in a way that made Ashlyn sweat cold.

“Excellent...”

  
  



	17. The truth

**Chapter 17: The truth.**

The Leader walked towards Ashlyn with metallic boots that made a great stomping sound as she walked. Suddenly, Ashlyn recognized the aliens.

“You are Dorcanians. You are the leaders of the Zeot 11 Galaxy,” said Ashlyn, calm. “You bully the rest of your galaxy to join your wars against the rest of the universe.” She had discovered with Ali, and knew they were bloodthirsty and cruel, but they hadn't been able to find out why they attacked all the galaxies.

“Someone's done her research,” the creature said, its voice sounding both mechanical and deep, grating.

“I have. But still I don't understand why you'd generate all this chaos, lose so many of your allies, just to get me.”

“Those lives are not important, ours are,” the creature was closer now, and was two heads taller and twice as wide as Ashlyn, even with her new transformation. “We feed off the energy of other species, the more powerful they are the more invincible we get.”

“That's why you killed the Atlanteans and everybody else?”

“Yes and... no. But less chatting...” it raised a claw threateningly. “It's feast time.”

The creature jumped on Ashlyn, who barely had time to move aside. They began to fight, and the other creature demanded its allies to leave Ashlyn for her, so it was just the two of them. If Ashlyn threw ice, so did the alien, if Ashlyn tried to cook them with hot vapour, so could the alien, and all her athleticism wasn't a match for the alien, who in a moment had broken her arm as if it was paper and had pinned her to the ground. And Ashlyn knew right then that if all the Atlanteans hadn't been able to kill them, neither would she.

And then, when she could feel their breath and hear their opening jaws in front of her face, her eyes closed as she prepared to die, something changed.

“ASHLYN, GET UP!” something hit her forehead and Ashlyn saw the little badge of her costume. She put it on right as the creature went to eat her, and the jaws collided with her protective glasses, making it cream in pain. The suit was resistant. Looking for her saviour, Ashlyn grinned as she saw Ali, blood-stained but alive, standing at the door with Glennon and another team of the corporation's special forces, that instantly started dealing with the aliens in the room, protecting Abby's body and the president.

If Ashlyn felt stronger before, as if she had transformed, the knowledge that Ali was alive seemed to create a fire in her chest that was inextinguishable. Her hits became sharper and stronger, her speed faster, and her arm healed itself under the armour costume. And now the hits didn't affect her, now she could combat properly... and before the creature knew it, Ashlyn had grabbed its head so hard, that it smashed in her hands and the creature dropped, dead.

Recovering her breath, she looked around and saw the other aliens were starting to die too, as if killing their leader weakened them, and the President was crying sitting in a corner while Ali and Glennon crowded around Abby.

“Abby... head protections off! Gloves off!” Ashlyn demanded to the costume, that listened, and so she ran to Abby and knelt next to her. Glennon and Ali had ripped her jacket off and Ashlyn's stomach churned as she saw a hole into Abby's guts.

“There's no way you can heal this...” Ali muttered looking at Ashlyn with tears in her eyes.

“There is now,” Ashlyn didn't know how, but she knew she could do this. She covered the bleeding hole with her hands, and focused her whole energy there. And as her hands filled with heat, she closed her eyes, and it all went black.

**. . .**

When she woke up, Ashlyn was in her pyjamas, on her bed in the apartment she and Ali had occupied in the Corporation's building, in Florida, and she felt like new. Strong, warm... the sun shinning through the window made her think that perhaps everything had been a terrible nightmare. She sat up in bed, smiling at the belief, and stretched just as a running tap in the adjacent bathroom closed and the door opened. Ali came inside, and Ashlyn's smile faded with the confirmation that it hadn't all been a dream. Ali had, after all, a split lip and her hair was parted where a long line of stitches had been made. She had a bandaged wrist, and despite her general appearance of shit, Ali grinned at her.

“Hi there, good morning,” Ali walked over to her and being gentle with herself, kissed her.

“Baby, what...? Let me fix you...”

“Leave it, they're battle scars, I'm fine,” Ali caressed her cheek. “How are you feeling? You look different, taller and... fitter.”

“I'm great, much better than you it seems... but it's a story for another day. You look like you should lie down...”

“I'm just tired, that's all. A lot's happened while you were sleeping.”

“I'm sorry. I don't even recall falling asleep. Wasn't I...” she squinted her eyes, thoughtful, “healing someone?”

“Abby,” Ali nodded. “She's doing good, by the way. She's in the infirmary, you managed to heal most of her wound before you fainted from exhaustion, as you used all your power. All she'll have left is a scar and some pain, she'll probably be discharged tomorrow, she just hasn't woken-up yet, for some reason. But I'm sure it's nothing, Glennon didn't seem worried.”

“All right...” Ashlyn stood up and hugged her close. “I'm so glad you're safe. I thought you were dead, when I saw the ship explode...”

“Oh, right!” Ali suddenly remembered. “Of course, you saw that... but don't worry, it was empty. We had all vacated it after we realized it could happen, and we saw Glennon and the Corporation's people, so we just ran to see what we can do. That's when we heard no one had seen Abby or her guys since they went to the White House, and we got worried and went to get you. Do you know what happened to her?”

“She was down when I arrived, all of them were. My guess is they punched through her chest or something,” relief washed over Ashlyn, knowing everyone of her people were okay then. “And Pinoe and our friends? Everybody made it back just fine?”

“Yes. The President's family is dead and so he has left the government in the hands of the Vice President to mourn, we're working alongside the military to fix DC, and there will be ceremonies to bury all the lives that were lost. Around two hundred civilians and three hundred non-civilians, between military, police and our guys. This is going to be as life-changing as 9/11, I fear...” Ali sighed, holding onto her. “But we'll be okay. And the Government finally admitted aliens exist.”

“I was beginning to wonder how they were going to explain this.”

“They released a message from the Vice President on the telly, and she explained what we told them to, well, Glennon, who's taking the reins in Abby's name; that we suffered an unprecedented attack from a race of enemy aliens from another planet, and that Wambach Corporation was at the lead in the research of the outer space and would work to prevent any future attacks and protect the human race, along with friendly aliens who came to our rescue and to who we owe our survival. They're now agreeing to do anything the Corporation tells them to.”

“Nice move.”

“There's something else,” Ali separated from her, staring at her in the eyes. “Babe... not everyone made it back safely.”

“Who didn't?” Ashlyn felt her stomach drop already. Was it Tobin? Because she had just started dating Christen, and she'd be heartbroken... or was it Whitney? Kenneth? He had been close...

“Your Mum,” Ali's words entered Ashlyn's brain like knives and she flopped on the bed, while Ali sat next to her and took her hand. “I'm so sorry,” her eyes were full of tears, “I'm so, so sorry... I know I said I'd protect her, but,” her voice broke, “the lizard-like bastards came to us all at once, I could hardly defend myself, Kyle's leg was sliced open, and when I turned around... they snapped her in half, Ashlyn. I couldn't help her.”

Ashlyn nodded slowly, little by little beginning to acknowledge the information, and then squeezed Ashlyn's hand.

“Is Kyle all right now?”

“Yes,” Ali sniffled and nodded. “He's walking again by now. Luckily, that's when Glennon found us and they helped us, but as for your mother, there was nothing to do. We brought her remains back though, they're in the morgue down in the basements. I'm sorry...”

“Stop apologizing,” Ashlyn gulped the knot forming in her throat and wrapped her arms around her, hugging her close. “You were so brave, so strong, so tough... you fought so well, and I'm so proud of you, my love. I know you tried your best, and it's not your fault. It's me they wanted. They came for me. This is not on you.”

“But it's not your fault either, you didn't ask for this...”

“Let's just go see Abby, please. I need to make sure she's okay.”

Ashlyn got dressed while nursing the heaviness in her chest, and Ali walked with her out of the apartment. Even in the light of a new day, the air was heavy as they were all immersed in an atmosphere of grief and sorrow. Here and there, people held back sobs while trying to accept their friends or colleagues were gone, but in the infirmary, everything was quiet and Abby's was the only occupied bed. Glennon sat at her bedside holding her hand and Pinoe and Sue stood by the feet of the bed. Both looked like they had had better days, but were healthy after all.

“Hi there,” Pinoe hugged her tight. “I'm sorry about your Mum. She was better than any of us.”

“Thank you,” Ashlyn patted her back and next hugged Sue. “You okay?”

“We're fine, sorry about...”

“It's fine,” Ashlyn forced a smile and turned to Glennon, squeezing her shoulder affectionately. “How is she?” she turned to Abby, who had more colour on her face, and seemed asleep.

“Better, she's been in and out, we talked some, she's better and better. Your Uncle Jimbo said she seemed to have some toxic inside that now she's getting rid of, but it's what's taking longer to heal,” Glennon said. That's when Ashlyn remembered her extended family, all of her mother's side, and she must've seen something in her eyes, because she smiled small and squeezed her hand. “They're holding up, they're with Tammye now. I'm so sorry Ashlyn, I wish we could've protected her.”

“You built her time, for years,” Ashlyn sighed, turning to Abby. “She went to save the President, didn't she?”

“She tried,” Glennon explained. “Nobody else from the team she was leading survived to tell us what happened, but the President's family has been murdered, and he is too traumatized to speak. You won't know anything by chance, right?”

“When I got there, I saw the same you did,” answered Ashlyn. “The President was crying for mercy and the leader of the aliens, who I later killed, was asking him where the Atlantean was. When I heard, I made my presence be known and told them it was me. Before I killed the leader, it explained to me that they feed off—,”

“I know,” Glennon nodded, and when Ashlyn looked confused, she proceeded. “We've been analysing their spaceships, they have tons of information we're deciphering. They stop ageing and become stronger through eating other civilizations, confirming our thoughts that they must've ended the Atlanteans too. That's why they wanted to eat you too, the more powerful the civilization, the better, and little were as powerful as your kind. If they knew one was on the loose, it must've been enough. But we're still investigating a lot.”

“Too much science right now,” murmured Abby waking up, and they grinned at her.

“Hello gorg,” Glennon kissed her softly as Abby blinked awake. “How are you feeling, angel?”

“Best I've felt so far,” Abby looked up at Ashlyn and seemed to become embarrassed. “The wife told me you saved my life. Thank you.”

“Don't get too excited, I was just playing hero,” Ashlyn joked, chuckling. Abby snorted a laugh and shook her head.

“I owe you all some apologizes...”

“No you don't,” Ashlyn argued.

“I don't?” asked Abby full of surprise.

“Let's just say we both know how to be authentic dickheads, we're even.” Abby side smiled, nodding.

“We are. But I'm still sorry.”

“Ugh, too sappy, I'm going to puke rainbows,” Pinoe joked making them all laugh.

  
  


A few days later, it was Tammye's funeral. Ashlyn stood between her uncle and Ali, with her uncle's arm tight around her shoulders and Ali's hand in hers, and their friends and families around, as they gathered in the cemetery to bid goodbye to a good person and scientist, burying her between Christopher and Mike.

The sun was just setting, the ocean roared against the cliffs, and the soft breeze of the air reminded them that they were still alive. Ashlyn sniffled and took a deep breath, closing her eyes and feeling Ali's gentle, steady squeeze of her hand, grounding her. The fall was close now, it was getting colder, but Ashlyn was glad to see her mother be buried in the end of the summer, their favourite season.

When the funeral ended, people stayed for a few more minutes before slowly, the multitudes started to go away.

“I'll see you tomorrow for lunch, right honey?” Jimbo asked his niece.

“Sure. Take care,” Ashlyn hugged him.

“You too. Love you kid.”

“Love you too.” Ashlyn hugged other relatives and saw them go before she and Ali also started walking away, pacing around the fields over the cliff.

“Hey Ash!” Abby ran to her, and to her surprise, handed her what seemed like a filing folder. “The investigation on the spaceships has been completed. We know why they were looking for you. It wasn't just because you were an Atlantean.”

“Wasn't it?” Ashlyn took the folder, looking around at the documents.

“There's a prophecy one of their kind issued a century ago, saying a child would be born in the land of the powerful gods of the ocean, at the time when the moon of Oor hides away behind the mountains of Elderah, in the day 650 of the year of the light. And that this child would be the only one capable of ending their civilization, as it happened, because once you killed the leader, they all died.”

“I didn't understand half the shit you said,” Ashlyn snorted a laugh. “Oor? Elderah?”

“References to their planet, their prophet, their planet, their mountains and moons. But apparently it basically points to your birth.”

“So a prophecy said I could end them all, and so they did they one thing that could make me want to kill them.”

“Exactly.”

“Seems very stupid. Who writes this story?”

“I don't know, but it's as bad as fanfiction,” Abby smiled small, patting her shoulder. “All the truth is in there. What happened to your parents, everything. Spoiler alert they're all dead, but... the Dorcanians and their friends in the Zeot 11 Galaxy stole the books from the Atlanteans, their technology, everything. They have a list I wrote here of stolen items. Anyway, we're already working to fix their spaceships and use them to go and retrieve what they stole, so soon you'll be able to know it all about your people. According to our calculations, with the Dorcanian spaceships, the whole trip can be done in just a month. So happy birthday.” She said, although there was sadness in her eyes. Ashlyn nodded, feeling sad but just slightly less now.

“Why would you bother so much for me?”

“You're my sister, and I should've always stood by you. You were right... family goes before countries. And I know you no longer wanted to keep researching but... you should find out all we can find out. It's not just about giving you peace of mind... it's finding out who you are. We know who we are, humanity has spent every day and resource on discovering it... you should know too.”

“Thanks, Abby,” they hugged and then Abby winked, separating.

“You should go and...” she eyed Ali. “Spend some time with your girl now. We'll hold the fort.”

Ashlyn smiled and wrapped an arm around Ali, guiding her away. They arrived back to the cliff were they had had picnic so long ago, and sat, staring at the sunset. It was then that Ashlyn remembered the birthday present she had been meaning to give Ali for forever, and never found the right moment. Now that the chaos was over, and they were about to open a new book in their lives, and Ashlyn's mind was full of peace, even despite the pain, she knew it was the right time.

So she dug a hand in the inside pocket of her coat, and pulled out a small velvet box she had been carrying around.

“Hey, love...”

“Shit, are you going to propose? Because baby I do love you but,” Ali rambled nervously, seeing the box, “I'm like, twenty-two, I think it's too soon and—,”

“Relax,” Ashlyn grinned. “I'm not proposing... yet. It's just... happy belated birthday, my love.” She handed the box and Ali smiled from ear to ear, opening it to find a silver-chain necklace with a pendant that looked like a small locket with an 'A' engraved. Opening it, Ali smiled even bigger seeing a picture of them together, kissing.

“Ashlyn... I love it. Thank you.”

“I was going to give it to you when I returned, but then I fought with Abby and... then things seemed too tense it never seemed like the right moment. Sorry...”

“It's all right. Totally worth the wait, put it on please?”

Ashlyn kissed her and then helped her put it on, holding her close as she used the opportunity to kiss her shoulder, cheek, and then lips again.

“I love it,” Ali repeated, beaming at her. “And right on time for the anniversary of the day we met. It's just in a few days.”

“Bravo for me,” Ashlyn joked, taking her hand in hers. “It looks beautiful on you. I was hoping that maybe this way... I can always be right by your side, even when I'm somewhere killing blue-blooded bastards.”

Ali snorted a laugh and nodded.

“Really lovely. Come here...” she kissed her softly, and as they separated, Ashlyn saw mischief in Ali's eyes, illuminated by the last bits of sun. “So, you're going to propose eventually, uh?”

Ashlyn chuckled, shaking her head.

“One, I'm not about to give you spoilers,” she kissed her again. “And two...” she said before kissing her once more. “I've yet to figure out how do Atlantean weddings work, because if I'm going to marry you, it better be valid across the whole universe. There isn't one sun under which I wouldn't want to be permanently joined to you.”

Ali's grin crashed against her lips, and their arms wrapped tight around one another, this time, to not separate for a very, very, long time. If ever.

**THE END**


End file.
